NTEU Takes Grooming Standards
Case to Appeals Court
NTEU's longstanding battle against CBP's illegally-imposed
grooming standards continued last month in a federal
appeals court.
Back
at the
Bargaining Table
NTEU and CBP are scheduled to resume term
bargaining the week of Dec. 1. Watch for
an update with highlights from the bargaining
table when the next round of negotiations
concludes. In the meantime, NTEU members
can get complete information on the discussions
so far on NTEU's
web site. |
|
In oral argument, NTEU challenged a decision by the
Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) that CBP
does not have to negotiate over several of the new
policy's provisions, including CBP's restriction on
employees' facial hair. NTEU told a three-judge panel
that CBP had presented no evidence to the FLRA to
support its reasoning for prohibiting neatly-trimmed
beards. The agency insisted that facial hair would
interfere with respirator use during emergencies,
but, as NTEU argued, CBP had never adopted a respirator
policy and employees had never used, been fitted for
or trained in the use of respirators.
NTEU already had a negotiated policy in place in 2004
when CBP unilaterally implemented the new grooming
standards, which set rules for everything from jewelry
to fingernail length. CBP has since ignored two NTEU-won
arbitration decisions declaring that the agency illegally
applied the new grooming standards and must rescind
them.
The court is expected to issue a decision in the next
several months.
CBP Appeals NTEU Arbitration
Win on Work Schedules
Four months after advising local managers to comply
with the scheduling requirements in NTEU's contract,
CBP is appealing a union arbitration victory declaring
illegal the agency's scheduling practices. In its
appeal to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, CBP
is maintaining that the law does not apply to Legacy
Customs Officers because they operate under a different
overtime system than most other federal employees.
"For several years now, CBP has not only violated
these employees' rights by denying them a voice in
assignments and overtime, but management has deprived
them of millions in lost overtime," said NTEU
President Colleen M. Kelley, adding that NTEU will
contest CBP's appeal.
An arbitrator last year ordered CBP to provide back
pay to Legacy Customs Officers denied consistent work
hours and consecutive days off. During the remedial
phase of the decision, NTEU resisted CBP attempts
to deny compensation to various groups of employees
and severely restrict the time period for which it
would have to grant back pay.
NTEU continues to pursue similar grievances on behalf
of newly-hired CBP Officers, Legacy INS Officers and
Agriculture Specialists.
NTEU, CBP Negotiate Over Controlled
Tire Deflation Directive
NTEU has negotiated an agreement
that ensures CBP Officers will have adequate training
and decision-making power when it comes to using Controlled
Tire Deflation Devices (CTDD).
Under the agreement, CBP Officers will have sole
discretion to decide whether or not to use CTDDs.
Only those devices CBP certifies as safe on an annual
basis will be deployed, and CTTDs will be safely located
so that they do not pose a risk to Officers and cannot
be used by suspects as weapons. The agreement also
requires CBP to provide training to Officers escorting
high-risk referrals or suspects to secondary inspection.
Read
the Memorandum of Understanding or visit <www.dhsunion.org/Documents/TireMOU
.pdf>.
NTEU Offers Recommendations to
Obama Transition Team
NTEU has submitted a list of recommendations to President-elect
Barack Obama's transition team, including suggestions
for improving the Department of Homeland Security.
The
52-page document, Refocusing
Federal Agencies on Mission-Critical Issues: The Federal
Employees’ View, includes a recommendation
to repeal DHS's authority to implement a new personnel
system. Earlier this year, NTEU declared victory in
its five-year battle to defeat administration attempts
to create an anti-employee labor relations system
by severely restricting the collective bargaining
rights of DHS employees. After securing three legal
wins and legislative approval to slash funding for
implementing the rules, DHS relented in its efforts
to impose the new system.
Other recommendations in NTEU's document include
creating a more collaborative workplace, providing
adequate agency resources, ending inefficient contracting,
expanding collective bargaining rights and tying changes
in civil service rules to increased potential for
achieving agency missions.
Get
more information or visit <www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease
.aspx?ID=1336>.
