Executive Order Ruling
Several weeks ago, we posted about three Executive Orders issued by the President on May 25th of this year (Executive Order Ensuring Transparency, Accountability, and Efficiency in Taxpayer Funded Union Time Use; Executive Order Developing Efficient, Effective, and Cost-Reducing Approaches to Federal Sector Collective Bargaining; Executive Order Promoting Accountability and Streamlining Removal Procedures Consistent with Merit System Principles).
The Patent Office Professional Association and a group of other federal labor unions filed a law suit challenging the validity of many sections of the Executive Orders that were harmful to employees and to the union’s ability to fully represent their interests. A hearing took place on July 25th and a decision issued early Saturday morning, August 25th.
U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson issued the ruling which enjoined implementation of many of the contested sections of the Orders. The Judge enjoined the President’s subordinates:
1) from implementing provisions that attempted to limit the time spent negotiating ground rules and collective bargaining agreements,
2) from implementing provisions that required agencies to pursue ground rules that required negotiations only by exchange of written proposals,
3) from refusing to allow their subordinates to bargain over permissive topics set forth in section 7106(b)(1) of title 5, USC,
4) from not permitting agency personnel from agreeing to union time in excess of one hour per bargaining unit member per year,
5) from enforcing language that: denied union officials the ability to lobby on behalf of their unions on paid union time, required union officials to spend at least three-quarters of their paid time performing agency duties, denied union officials the ability to prepare or pursue grievances on behalf of other employees on union time, and required union officials to obtain approval prior to use of union time,
6) from endeavoring to eliminate from the scope of the grievance procedures: removals, the assignment of performance ratings, monetary awards and quality step increases,
7) from limiting performance improvement periods to 30 days.
You can find the full decision at:
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2018cv1261-58