Following President Obama’s recent proposal for a two-year pay freeze for all civilian federal workers, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a pay freeze for Department of Energy contractor employees.
Locality pay extensions; government-wide categories of non-general schedule employees
The President’s Pay Agent has decided to extend the 2011 locality payments to the same Governmentwide and single-agency categories of employees authorized to receive the 2010 locality payments. If a pay freeze is enacted for 2011, these employees will be entitled to continue to receive locality payments at the 2010 level. Here is the OPM announcement.
Groucho Marx said “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.” In a recent arbitration appeal, the FLRA reversed itself over an issue involving an agreement made by political direction with the union in the waning days of the Clinton Administration. The current Chairman, a member when the original case was decided did not dissent then but now gives the union not only a second bite of the apple but, arguably, the whole bushel. Is it a holiday gift? You decide.
The president’s annual salary hasn’t increased for several years, but there are a number of other benefits that come with the job.
While you and I are not, strictly speaking, equipped with internal lie detectors, we can learn many of the common giveaways people display when they’re trying to get away with something. And those can serve as the next best thing.
Every year various agencies update numbers (generally dollar amounts) for benefits that impact federal employees and retirees. Not every agency has issued all their 2011 updates, but many of them have. Here are some of the more important financial numbers for the federal workforce in 2011.
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has clarified and lowered the threshold of what defines “retaliation” in claims of discrimination. The Court of Appeals held that an agency’s actions can be considered retaliatory if the actions would discourage a reasonable person from making or supporting a discrimination claim.
There has been controversy surrounding the TSA’s use of body scanners in airport security, in part due to questions about the safety of radiation emitted from the machines. The TSA recently published some data on the radiation safety levels of their x-ray equipment.
While the Federal Labor Relations Authority is tiny when compared with most Executive Branch employers, it must present its own unique challenges to management. In my 36 years in and outside government, I have encountered many managers who supervise attorneys. They liken their leadership role to herding cats.
