AFGE Wins Arbitration Against VA Over Bad Faith Bargaining
Source: AFGE
March 13, 2023
In a major victory for AFGE National VA Council, an arbitrator recently ruled that the Department of Veterans Affairs has engaged in bad faith bargaining and ordered the agency to cease and desist its pattern of unlawful conduct and go back to the bargaining table to negotiate in good faith with the largest union of VA workers.
Following a historic settlement agreement in July 2021, NVAC and the VA have been in contract negotiations on a “limited reopener” of the 2011 Master Agreement since March 2022. Instead of fulfilling the promise of the Biden-Harris Administration to expand collective bargaining rights and empower federal workers, VA negotiators are demanding that the union accept concessions in nearly every article of the contract.
The parties have completed 19 weeks of bargaining and exchanged nearly 100 counterproposals but have not reached an agreement on a single article as the VA has engaged in bad faith bargaining.
The agency, for example, insisted that all existing local supplement agreements (LSAs) and Memorandum of Understandings be terminated. It will not agree to provide performance improvement plans (PIPs) to employees whose adverse actions are taken under the 2017 VA Accountability Act even though the Federal Labor Relations Authority held that PIPs were not conflicting with the law. VA negotiators also refuse to recognize FLRA precedent or provide data to support its bargaining proposals.
Read more: https://www.afge.org/article/afge-wins-arbitration-against-va-over-bad-faith-bargaining/
FULL story at link.
