Trump Administration Claims Authority to Override Union Telework Provisions, Last-Minute CBAs
President Trump takes aim at federal labor groups, busting last minute contracts and ordering the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to ignore agreements on telework.
First on the busted contracts. The Trump Administration took aim at last minute contracts negotiated by the Biden Administration, such as the Department of Education Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which generally prohibits employees from being forced to return to the office. The CBA was signed on January 17, three days before the inauguration.
The Social Security Administration’s signing of a CBA that extended telework provisions at the end of the Biden administration was also the subject of a heated January hearing in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
In an executive order, the White House said “Such last-minute, lame-duck CBAs, which purport to bind a new President to his predecessor’s policies, run counter to America’s system of democratic self-government” and “inhibit the President’s authority to manage the executive branch by tying his hands with inefficient and ineffective practices.”
The order says CBA’s executed in the 30 days prior to the inauguration of a new president, shall not be approved.
Legal action looms. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal labor union said, “Federal employees should know that approved union contracts are enforceable by law, and the president does not have the authority to make unilateral changes to those agreements.”
Targeting Telework Provisions
Meanwhile the administration is telling agencies to ignore telework agreements in union contracts, as President Trump orders federal workers to return to the office five days a week.
In a memo to agencies, OPM acting director Charles Ezell notes that setting telework policy is a management right and that “Provisions of collective bargaining agreements that conflict with management rights are unlawful and cannot be enforced.”
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) president Matt Biggs, notes that according to federal law, only the enactment of legislation passed by Congress requires unions to return to the bargaining table to negotiate how policy changes are implemented.
“They claim telework agreements are unlawful—not true—and the amazing thing is they do it in a memo which does not carry the force of law,” said Biggs. “They want to unilaterally rewrite the law.”
However, there may not be relief coming to labor unions at least in the short term. The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has been hamstrung by not having a Senate-confirmed general counsel for eight years, forcing union advocates to seek workarounds, such as alleging unfair labor practices as part of the arbitrated grievance process. The timeframe for a decision though is much longer than in a fully staffed FLRA.