GUEST COLUMNIST: Marick Masters – The State of Federal Labor Relations and Personnel | SFLERP: Society of Federal Labor & Employee Relations Professionals

GUEST COLUMNIST

The State of Federal Labor Relations and Personnel

By: Marick F. Masters

The landscape of federal labor relations and personnel is undergoing significant changes that coincide with party shifts in the White House and evolving budgetary conditions. These changes challenge employees, their unions, and managers across the board. They affect the size of government, personnel policies, labor-manage-ment contracts, grievances and complaints, and the morale and performance of departments and agencies. Given the turbulence of recent decades and the deep uncertainty about what the future holds in the related areas of federal labor relations and personnel, it makes sense to take stock of the current state of affairs.

The brief article examines recent activities and key developments in labor-management relations, employment levels in the federal government and general schedule pay determinations, the caseloads of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), the membership in major federal employee unions, and the status of the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations. In short, we take an abbrevi-ated inventory, which leads us to call for improvements in the collection and reporting of relevant data by key federal agencies involved in these area, including the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Several major developments have occurred in federal sector labor-management relations since 2009, when President Obama assumed office. First, on December 9, 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13522 “Creating Labor-Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services.” In a sense, this order resurrected the labor-management partnership program that was a pillar of President Clinton’s broader initiative to “reinvent” government.

E.O. 13522 specifically mandated that each federal agency or department prepare a plan to “address how…[it] will work with the exclusive representatives of its employees through its labor-management forums to develop…metrics to monitor improvements in areas such as labor-management satisfaction, productivity gains, cost savings, and other areas identified…[as] relevant…and…[to] explain…[its] plan for devoting sufficient resources to the implementation of the plan.” To facilitate the execution of this order, President Obama created the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations, whose appointed members were charged to support labor-management forums and promote partnership between the parties in order to improve the delivery of federal services and products in a cost-effective manner. Reminiscent of President Clinton’s partnership decree, E.O. 13522 stated that “A nonadversarial forum for managers, employees, and employees’ union representatives will promote satisfactory labor relations and improve the productivity and effectiveness of the Federal Government.”

Second, on February 4, 2011, the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reversed a policy prohibition on collective bargaining by airport screeners adopted in the Bush administration in early 2003. Administrator Pistole issued a Determination “to enable our TSO [Transportation Security Officers] to vote on whether or not they want to engage in collective bargaining under a unique framework that includes bargaining on limited, non-security issues relating to employment.” The Determination stipulated that bargaining would occur over such issues as “The performance management process…Awards and recognition process…Attendance management guidelines process…[and] shift bids.” Prohibited bargaining items included compensation, proficiency testing, job qualifications, and discipline standards.

Third, on June 23, 2011, bargaining-unit eligible TSA screeners voted to be represented by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) in a run-off election between it and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). The bargaining unit included roughly 44,000 employees, for which AFGE is required to negotiate a nationwide contract under Pistole’s Determination.

Fourth, on November 9, 2012, AFGE announced that its members had ratified its first contract with TSA, which was to take effect on December 9 of that year. The contract covered such subjects as performance management, attendance management, shift and annual leave bid processes, shift trade policy, selection process for special assignments, transfer policy, work status changes, parking subsidies, facilities and services, and uniforms and uniform allowances. A second contract between the parties was ratified in December 2016.

Federal Employment and General Schedule Pay Increases

In the past decade, the federal government has faced intense budget pressures, particularly during the immediate years of the Great Recession. Between fiscal years 2008 and 2017, overall federal civilian employment has remained relatively flat (see Table 1

at bottom of newsletter). Total employment has fluctuated with the narrow band of 1,875,000 and 2,128,000. Within this composite, however, the mix of employment across agencies has shifted (see Table 2). For example, within the Department of Defense, employment rose from 671,000 in fiscal year 2008 to a peak of 771,000 in FY 2011. In the Department of Homeland Security, civilian employment increased from 158,000 in FY 2008 to 184,000 in FY 2016. Employment in the Veterans Administration rose from 249,000 in FY 2008 to nearly 356,000 in FY 2017, or almost 43 percent.

Federal-Employee Union Membership

Over a slightly longer period of time (2001-2016), the number of members in three of the largest federal-employee unions in terms of employees represented in the combined general schedule and wage grade workforces fluctuated significantly (see Table 3). The membership of AFGE climbed significantly from 198,453 to 325,877, or 64 percent. Membership in the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), an affiliate of the International Association of Machinists, dropped substantially between 2001 and 2007, falling 18 percent to 6,193. But it had jumped up to 8,079 in 2016, or 30 percent. The NTEU’s membership increased from 74,306 in 2001 to 86,654 but fell to 79,983 by 2016.

Federal General Schedule Pay Raises

Between fiscal years 2008 and 2017, federal general schedule pay raises have remained relatively flat (see Table 4). After increasing by 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent in fiscal years 2008 and 2009, respectively, the pay raise dropped to 1.5 percent in 2010 and was zero in the next three fiscal years. Between fiscal years 2014 through 2017, pay increases were held to 1 percent each year.

Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) Caseloads

Table 5 through 9 report data on the caseloads of the FLRA, the Office of General Counsel (OGC), and the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) between fiscal years 2013 and 2017 (with FY 2017 information estimated). The OGC, among other things, investigates and prosecutes unfair labor practice (ULP) cases and conducts union representation elections. The FSIP attempts to resolve bargaining disputes. Table 5 reports the ULP caseload of the OGC. The number of cases filed dropped significantly during this period, from 6,266 in fiscal year 2014 to 5,333 in fiscal year 2017 (estimated) or 15 percent.

Table 6 reports the OGC and FLRA caseloads for representation cases. After falling from 342 in fiscal year 2013 to 290 in fiscal year 2015, the number rose to 337 (estimated) in fiscal year 2017. FLRA caseload rose from 11 in FY 2013 to 23 in FY 2015 before dropping to an estimated 7 in fiscal year 2017.

Table 7 reports the FLRA’s arbitration caseload, which rose from 164 to 212 between fiscal years 2013 and 2014. It fell to 136 in FY 2016 and an estimated 150 in FY 2017. The FLRA’s negotiability caseload is included in Table 8, showing that the number increased from 38 in FY 2013 to 78 in FY 2016 before falling back to 69 (estimated) in 2017. At the FSIP (Table 10), the bargaining-impasses caseload fell from 232 in fiscal year 2013 to 167 in fiscal year 2015 before rising to 175 in fiscal year 2017 (estimated).

National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations (NCFLMR)

The NCFLMR, created by E.O. 13522 in December 2009, held its first meeting on February 26, 2010. During its existence, it has held 43 meetings, the last of which was in November 2016. The Council has received reports from 46 federal agencies and departments on the steps taken to implement labor-management forums and otherwise comply with the 2009 executive order. The Council also conducted twelve pilot projects covering 14,000 federal employees on negotiating permissive bargaining items under section 7106 (b) (1) of the 1978 Federal Labor-Management Relations Statute. In a 2012 report to the Congress, the Council concluded that “there was insufficient information to make recommendations to the President with respect to (b) (1) bargaining as the pilot projects were then in various stages of development.” In late 2016, the Council issued a statement to the incoming Trump administration in which it summarized its recommendations on pre-decisional involvement, data-driven performance, training, communications, and leadership. It recommended that “the incoming Administration should ensure that PDI [pre-decisional involvement] is used to promote the effective implementation of changes and improvements for the American people.”

Conclusion

Despite a wave of major policy changes in federal-sector labor-management relations and personnel since the end of the Clinton partnership era, we know little about the current state of federal labor relations. There is a serious paucity of data (for example, the OPM no longer reports summary data on unit recognitions and the FLRA buries its caseload data in Congressional Budget Justification reports). No systematic assessment has been conducted on the state of federal labor-management relations in quite some time. This is most unfortunate given that the effective management of such relations and personnel generally is critical to the proper functioning of government.

Professor Masters is Director of Labor at Wayne State University. He can be reached at marickm@wayne.edu.

TABLE 1: FEDERAL CIVILIAN FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT (FTE) EMPLOYEES:

FISCAL YEAR 2008-2017 (in thousands)

FISCAL YEAR	FTE EMPLOYEES
2008	1,875
2009	1,978
2010	2,128
2011	2,102
2012	2,091
2013	2,058
2014	2,033
2015	2,042
2016	2,057
2017	2,087

Source: www.whitehouse/omb/budget/historicals

TABLE 2: FEDERAL CIVILIAN FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT (FTE) EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS

(in thousands)

FISCAL YEAR	DoD	DHS	VA
2008	671	158	249
2009	703	170	272
2010	741	173	285
2011	771	180	296
2012	765	184	301
2013	738	184	313
2014	724	183	323
2015	725	179	335
2016	725	184	345
2017	731	181	356

Source: www.whitehouse/omb/budget/historicals

TABLE 3: UNION MEMBERSHIP OF AFGE, NFFE, AND NTEU: SELECTED YEARS 2001-2016

YEAR	AFGE	NFFE	NTEU
2001	198,453	7,528	74,306
2004	226,599	6,978	77,806
2007	235,678	6,193	77,733
2010	280,129	7,395	86,654
2013	301,201	7,533	81,766
2016	325,877	8,079	79,983

Source: LM-2 financial disclosure forms filed annual with the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards, online public disclosure room.

TABLE 4: FEDERAL GENERAL SCHEDULE PAY RAISES: FISCAL YEARS 2008-2017

FISCAL YEAR	PERCENT PAY RAISE
2008	2.5%
2009	2.9
2010	1.5
2011	0.0
2012	0.0
2013	0.0
2014	1.0
2015	1.0
2016	1.0
2017	1.0

Source: www.FederalPay.org

TABLE 5: OGC ULP CASELOAD: FISCAL YEARS 2013-2017 (ESTIMATED)

FISCAL YEAR	TOTAL CASES	CASES CLOSED
2013	6,147	4,577
2014	6,266	4,841
2015	5,843	4,665
2016	5,523	4,190
2017 (estimated)	5,333	4,370