The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released new guidance today on how agencies can implement Executive Order (EO) 14003, which aims to provide protections for the Federal workforce.
The EO, signed Jan. 22 by President Biden, is meant to “protect, empower, and rebuild” the Federal workforce; encourage union organizing and collective bargaining; and revoke Schedule F, among other EO’s signed by former President Trump regarding the Federal workforce.
This new guidance by OPM instructs agencies to identify, and then suspend, revise, or rescind actions that have been taken to implement Trump’s Federal workforce orders.
The guidance also directs agencies who are in collective bargaining negotiations to withdraw any bargaining proposals that implement Trump’s workforce orders and draft new ones consistent with Biden’s policies.
Additionally, any agencies who have already renegotiated collective bargaining agreements (CBA) that implement Trump’s workforce orders “must identify those provisions and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law and the policy articulated in EO 14003, engage impacted unions, as soon as practicable, to suspend, revise, or rescind the actions covered in these CBA provisions.”
The OPM guidance also provides new direction for agencies on the authorization of union time, revisions to discipline and unacceptable performance policies, and actions related to the system for monitoring the use of union time.
“Because bargaining over these subjects has most recently been at the discretion of the agency, it may be a new experience for some management and union representatives, and OPM is available to provide technical assistance to support implementation of this policy,” the guidance states.
