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NTEU Wins Faster Investigations of Weapon Removals

CBP has finally agreed to conduct firearm carriage authority investigations expeditiously, an important victory for employee rights that comes after eight years of NTEU litigation and a round of contract bargaining.

Under the agreement, the Office of Internal Affairs must conduct firearms carriage authority investigations "in an expeditious manner" on a priority basis over other investigations. NTEU also secured a provision requiring the Office of Field Operations (OFO) to review all cases where an officer's firearm has been removed every three months and provide an estimated timeframe for completion. Once the investigation is done and an officer's carriage authority is reinstated, OFO must return the officer's firearm within 10 days.

"Previously, anyone with a grudge against a CBP Officer could make an unsubstantiated allegation and the employee's weapon could be removed without due process," said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. "The agreement will ensure that investigations do not languish for months or even years. This is harmful both to the employee and CBP, which loses a trained, experienced officer on the line until an investigation is completed."

Message from the NTEU President The pay increase generated by NTEU’s long and successful effort to secure GS-12 journey status for Customs and Border Protection Officers and Agriculture Specialists is on track to be paid in September. (Read an FAQ from the agency on the increase.) This is a welcome and well-deserved step forward, and NTEU is proud of having played a key role in making it a reality. We continue to fight for career ladder upgrades for other CBP employees. More Your NTEU-CBP Contract Get the latest bargaining update Download the NTEU-CBP Contract Guide Read your full contract

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NTEU Wins Key Step Against Unfair Scheduling

The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has upheld an NTEU arbitration victory challenging the legality of CBP’s implementation of its Revised National Inspectional Assignment Policy (RNIAP). The impact could be far-reaching, since the decision affects all local changes in assignment and overtime procedures going back a number of years.

Under RNIAP, which legacy Customs unilaterally implemented late in 2001, the agency would no longer bargain with NTEU at the national level over local changes in these important areas. An arbitrator, acting on a grievance filed by NTEU, later ruled that the unilateral implementation of changes violated federal labor law by failing to provide NTEU with notice and an opportunity to negotiate local assignment policy changes at the national level.

Under a later arbitration decision dealing with the appropriate remedy for that violation, CBP was ordered to rescind all the changes implemented under RNIAP from November 2004—six months prior to the filing of the grievance—to the present time; provide NTEU with records of such changes so that it can be determined to what extent employees were adversely affected by the illegal changes, and bargain such changes in the future. The FLRA now has dismissed CBP exceptions to those rulings and given NTEU the opportunity to make a case for back pay for employees harmed by the agency’s illegal actions. NTEU has already contacted CBP about implementing the ordered remedies in this case.

Because the issue at hand is an unfair labor practice allegation, CBP has the option of appealing to federal court, a move NTEU hopes the agency will not take.