Catherwood LibraryILR School

The Justice Department has filed a 100-page brief to appeal a U.S. District Court ruling in August that denied the current administration's attempts to make it easier to fire federal employees, set time limits on collective bargaining negotiations, and restrict the use of official time by union employees. The brief argues that the District Court lacked jurisdiction, that the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) had sole purview, and that the judge had misconstrued “goal-setting provisions" as edicts. The judge's ruling in August had reviewed the trio of executive orders and determined that, as a whole, they went against the spirit of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act that good-faith labor-management negotiations are “in the public interest.” The ruling also opined that the FLRA can only hear cases regarding specific unfair labor practice complaints, and that appeals can only be brought for how regulations are applied, not against constitutionality.