5 Stories That Matter
August 15, 2022
Here are stories you need to know this week.
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VA’s Demand That AFGE Terminate All Existing Local Agreements Prompts Union to File 2nd National Grievance
August 01, 2022
Categories:
VA, The Insider
The Department of Veterans Affairs has demanded that the AFGE National VA Council (NVAC) terminate all existing local supplemental agreements, which constitutes a waiver of the union’s bargaining rights. This prompted NVAC to file a second national grievance.
The VA and NVAC have been in contract negotiations for months, and despite some limited progress at the table, the agency continues to engage in bad faith bargaining that does not put VA employees and the veterans we serve first.
“VA’s unlawful proposal has caused NVAC to file a National Grievance and has prompted us to pursue legal challenges before this article can be resolved,” said the NVAC bargaining team.
For decades, local supplements have been negotiated under Article 46, which allows for local unions and local VA facilities to reach supplemental agreements that address the unique circumstances impacting the workforce because certain issues don’t affect every facility the same way.
These agreements continue to remain in effect so long as they do not conflict with the national Master Agreement, and the local parties do not choose to reopen and renegotiate. Only a handful of VA facilities hold these contracts with local AFGE unions.
A few examples of issues addressed in local agreements include:
- Parking arrangements for health care providers and other staff
- How seniority is defined for purposes of selecting employees for reassignments or details
- Procedures for resolving employee complaints, such as through Alternative Dispute Resolution or mediation
- Local facilities for childcare, nursing mothers, fitness centers
NVAC filed its first national grievance on May 9 over the VA’s bad faith bargaining at the negotiating table. NVAC also has two negotiability appeals pending at the Federal Labor Relations Authority after the VA incorrectly declared several union proposals to be “non-negotiable.”
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AFGE is urging the Biden administration to adopt the Federal Salary Council’s pro-labor recommendations that would increase pay for tens of thousands of federal employees who last year made 22.47% less than their private sector counterparts.
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