AFGE is speaking out in opposition to a new proposal by the Trump administration that would reshape the rules that agencies must follow when attempting to fire, downgrade, or otherwise discipline federal workers.
The proposed changes would scrap time-tested rules and timelines governing proposed performance-based reductions in grade, removals, and adverse actions. They would betray our nation’s public-sector workers by skewing the rules to favor management, AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.
“The Trump administration is attempting to unravel nearly 50 years of established precedent that has functioned well for both federal workers, agencies, and American taxpayers as part of a coordinated campaign targeting federal workers and their rights,” Kelley said in a press statement.
“Our current rules are designed to ensure that all workers are treated fairly and that all agencies act lawfully, impartially, and consistently when proposing to discipline employees. The administration’s proposed rules would do the opposite – opening the door to politically or personally motivated actions that will undermine the integrity of our nonpartisan civil service.”
Taken together, the changes would make it far harder for unions to defend the workers they represent and would strip away long-standing safeguards that help keep experienced employees on the job.
Workers could no longer have a union representative on duty at their side during disciplinary proceedings, a right Congress established in 1978 to give federal employees a voice and a fair process when their jobs are at stake. Agencies would be barred from following the grievance and arbitration procedures they negotiated with unions. The rule also would give employees less time to respond to proposed discipline and would scrap the Douglas Factors, which require consideration of commonsense standards like an employee’s length of service and record on the job before imposing discipline.
The proposed rule from the Office of Personnel Management and Merit Systems Protection Board was published July 2 in the Federal Register with a 30-day comment period that ends Aug. 3.
AFGE will be submitting formal comments detailing our opposition to the proposed rule.
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