Catherwood LibraryILR School

Several senators have urged the Secretary of Education to overturn a one-sided collective bargaining agreement with the nation’s largest federal employee union, claiming that the department had broken federal labor laws in March when it had ended negotiations with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) on a new collective bargaining agreement and implemented a contract that ended numerous employee benefits, including telework, alternative work schedules, official time and nearly two dozen categories of issues that had been subject to grievance procedures. The AFGE filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the department with the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which found in July that the union’s case held merit. The senators wrote that the department’s attempts to implement a “management edict” have weakened its ability to recruit and retain employees, and have asked the department to provide information about what has been done to resolve outstanding unfair labor practice charges, as well as provide the number of employees who have left since the implementation of the new contract.