Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency advisory, departs a meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, at the Capitol in December. OPM said some aspects of implementation may be negotiable, such as reemployment rights and closeout performance appraisals. Image: JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
By: FEDweek StaffOPM has told agencies that the key aspects of the deferred resignation offer are not subject to labor-management negotiations, although adding that “there may be some limited collective bargaining obligations” over some processes to occur after the Thursday, February 6 deadline (Note: A court ordered OPM to postpone the deadline through Monday, February 10 at least in response to a lawsuit filed by unions).
The memo on chcoc.gov comes as the AFGE and NAGE unions have filed suit against the program asserting that it violates a range of civil service and other laws and asking for the program to be temporarily suspended, saying the unions have “a direct interest in ensuring that their members make informed decisions.”
“Some unions have asked to bargain with agencies regarding the deferred resignation program,” the memo says. It asserts that in general there is no obligation because of rules providing that a federal employee “is free to resign at any time, to set the effective date of his resignation, and to have his reasons for resigning entered into his official records.”
“The deferred resignation program is consistent with this government-wide regulation. While unions may possibly be able to bargain on resignation matters not covered by this regulation, unions may not seek to negotiate any matter inconsistent with the regulation,” it says.
It further says that bargaining is not allowed over management’s “right to establish policies or practices that encourage or discourage employees from remaining employed by an agency. This would include management’s rights to honor the terms of the deferred resignation offer; to offer VERA [early-out retirement] to employees in connection with the deferred resignation offer; and to exempt certain employees from the deferred resignation offer.”
OPM told agencies to review existing contracts for any provisions that affect resignations and that any that are “inconsistent with the OPM regulation or management rights discussed above are unenforceable.”
Also not negotiable, it says, are issues such as exclusions from eligibility and the deadline for acceptance.
However, it said that certain aspects of implementation may be negotiable, such as procedures for informing employees of benefits available or not available after resignation and of any applicable reemployment rights; providing them a closeout performance appraisal and copies of personal records; continuing to process any awards still in progress; and providing the union a list of bargaining unit employees who accepted the offer.
The memo follows two other recent ones from OPM to restrict the role of unions in the federal workplace. One told agencies not to give final approval to contracts reached within a month of the change in administrations and the other told them to review provisions of existing contracts providing for offsite work and to refuse to honor those that in their judgment conflict with management’s rights to direct employees, and assign work.
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