FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 01, 2026
July 01, 2026
Contact:
Tim Kauffman
202-374-6491
[email protected]
Proposed Changes to Federal Employee Discipline Rules Betray Nation’s Public Workers, AFGE Says
Categories:
Workers' Rights
Trump administration wants to prevent labor unions from representing workers in disciplinary proceedings and skew timelines to favor management
WASHINGTON – A new proposal by the Trump administration to reshape the rules that agencies must follow when attempting to fire, downgrade, or otherwise discipline federal employees betrays our nation’s public-sector workers by skewing the rules to favor management, the American Federation of Government Employees said today.
The proposed rule from the Office of Personnel Management and Merit Systems Protection Board, to be published tomorrow in the Federal Register with a 30-day comment period, would scrap time-tested rules and timelines governing proposed performance-based reductions in grade, removals, and adverse actions.
“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,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.
“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 also be barred from following the grievance and arbitration procedures they negotiated with unions. The rule would give employees less time to respond to proposed discipline and scrap the Douglas Factors, which require consideration of common-sense standards like an employee's length of service and record on the job before imposing discipline.
AFGE will be submitting formal comments detailing our opposition to the proposed rule.
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