Negotiation Issues Also Involved

Under the draft order, employees and their representatives also would get “pre-decisional involvement on all workplace matters without regard to whether those matters are negotiable.” The draft order also states that no existing collective bargaining agreements are to be abrogated and tells agencies to assess their current state of labor relations, address how they will monitor progress in areas identified by the forums as needing improvement, and issue annual reports. Also like the Clinton initiative, the order would require agencies to bargain over issues that are discretionary for negotiation under federal labor law—so-called “7106(b)(1)” matters including the numbers, types and grades of employees or positions assigned to an organization, tours of duty, and technology, methods and means of performing work. Many agencies resisted that change during the Clinton administration despite repeated prodding; the new draft order would require agencies to state a commitment to such bargaining.