FSIP Rules Against ALJ Union

     The Federal Services Impasse Panel (FSIP) has authority to resolve disagreements in contract negotiations between federal employee unions and employing agencies. FSIP has recently issued a long decision and order resolving a contract dispute between the Social Security Administration and the union that represents its Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). It was a foregone conclusion that FSIP would go against the union and it did. The Trump Administration has packed FSIP with anti-union activists. 

     I am no expert on this contract but the most obvious and important sign of FSIP hostility towards the union concerns the amount of paid time that union officials can put in on union business each year. In the past, the union was provided up to 22,000 hours per year of which it used an average of 15,226 hours per year. FSIP ordered that the union receive only 1,200 hours per year. This is only a third of the 3,600 hours that Social Security had already offered the union! The appearance is that the union was punished for its audacity in not accepting what the agency offered.

     The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) recently sued to remove FSIP members for bias. This was added to already pending litigation over the fact that FSIP members have not been subject to Senate confirmation. Those suits will probably still be pending come next January. Should Joe Biden be elected President, his Administration would have the opportunity to settle the suits in a manner favorable to the employee unions. This is one of a number of recent actions by this Administration that may be quickly reversed if Trump is not re-elected.