A Labor Dispute Inside The Department of Labor?
Acting DOL Secretary Julie Su (dubbed "the union whisperer") is being accused of acting in "bad-faith" by her own DOL employees' union and wasting tax-payer resources.
By Peter List, Editor | October 23, 2024
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su—whom Politico dubs “the union whisperer”—is being accused of “bad faith” by her own staff’s union within the U.S. Department of Labor.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 7,500 Department of Labor employees through its National Council of Field Labor Locals (NCFLL) is “calling on the department to stop bad faith delay tactics and negotiate employee telework proposals in good faith.”
According to the union, the issue is the issuance of a return-to-office mandate that Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su recently implemented. The mandate requires all NCFLL bargaining unit employees to report to their duty location at least five days per pay period.
DOL management had discussions with the union about the policy off and on since the policy was announced in 2023, explains the Government Executive.
Over the summer, however, the issue reached the Federal Service Impasses Panel. During a “fruitless” 11-hour mediation session, the department argued that the union’s proposals improperly interfered with management’s rights to assign work and direct employees and are, therefore, nonnegotiable.
The panel last month dismissed the union’s case for lack of jurisdiction, according to Government Executive, since negotiability disputes must go before the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
In a letter announcing the decision, FSIP Chairman Martin Malin criticized the DOL in a footnote and implied that DOL management engaged in underhanded tactics when it asserted that the issue was non-negotiable.
In the letter, dated September 25, 2024, Chairman Malin stated of the DOL’s tactics:
“Despite dismissing the case, the panel takes a moment to address concerns regarding the agency’s actions in this dispute. The agency’s negotiability argument was formally raised in its post hearing brief on August 26, 2024—over 80 days after the union first sought the assistance of the panel. In those 80 days, the panel and its representatives devoted significant resources to seeking resolution via investigation, caucuses and mediation. The agency never indicated an intent to raise a negotiability argument other than in its August 8 statement mentioned above that it walked back the next day. The agency’s post-hoc decision to raise this argument has resulted in an ineffective and inefficient expenditure of taxpayer funded resources that cannot be justified in light of the results, i.e., a straightforward dismissal.”
Though the FSIP dismissed the union’s case due to its lack of jurisdictional authority, the union filed a “negotiability appeal” with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) on October 4th.
A week later, in an October 11th email to DOL staff, Acting Labor Secretary Su stated that her agency “has engaged with NCFLL over the course of several months to obtain the Union’s input into matters affecting employees in their bargaining unit; to meet any labor management obligations it may have had in advance of implementation.”
“The NCFLL is extremely disappointed that Acting Secretary Su has taken this action as the Department has not fully met its labor management obligations,” NCFLL President Daryll Laurie stated. “The NCFLL has expended a tremendous amount of time and resources in an all-out attempt to prevent Acting Secretary from taking the action she did on October 11, 2024.”
“Because of DOL’s bad-faith delay tactics, the case is no longer under FSIP jurisdiction and must be addressed through a separate, lengthy process under the Federal Labor Relations Authority,” AFGE stated in a release last week. “While the union respects DOL’s right to raise a negotiability claim, there is no justification for declaring the NCFLL bargaining proposals as non-negotiable after the impasse hearing had taken place, wasting time and taxpayer dollars.”
Though largely celebrated by unions, Acting Labor Secretary Su is a controversial figure who was Deputy Labor Secretary under then-Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. Following Walsh’s departure from the DOL, President Biden nominated Su to become Labor Secretary, however, she has failed to be confirmed in the U.S. Senate and her remaining in the position has been called ‘unconstitutional’ business groups.
