VA Rolls Back Trump-era Workforce Policies – By Erich Wagner (Nextgov) / Mar 30 2021
The Veterans Affairs Department is restoring its previous contract with AFGE, which allows access to official time and union office space in department facilities
The Veterans Affairs Department last week announced that it would move to implement President Biden’s executive order rescinding Trump-era workforce policies and aimed at restoring more collaborative labor-management relations.
Biden’s executive order, issued on Jan. 22, rescinded former President Trump’s trio of executive orders aimed at making it easier to fire federal workers and reducing the role of unions in federal workplaces. Those orders restricted the scope of topics that agencies could negotiate with unions over, shortened the timeframe of those negotiations, severely restricted union employees’ access to official time and cut unions off from using free agency office space and office supplies like computers and email services.
Following guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, Ophelia Vicks, acting executive director of the VA’s Office of Labor-Management Relations, sent the American Federation of Government Employees a letter outlining the steps the department is taking to unwind those Trump-era policies. The letter confirms that the department recognizes its 2011 contract with the union as the “current agreement in effect” and restores unions’ access to official time and office space as it was prior to Trump’s orders.
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