Tag: Supreme Court

Back Pay Is On the Way

Back Pay Is On the Way

Abel Tumik/Shutterstock.com

The government shutdown is over and payroll is back up and running. By the end of this week, most of the federal workforce will have received retroactive pay for the 16-day shutdown.

In fact, thousands of federal employees already have received back pay to make whole the partial paycheck they got during the shutdown, which lasted from Oct. 1 through Oct. 16. The Interior Business Center, run by the Interior Department, handles payroll for 42 government agencies and 240,000 federal employees. IBC deposited back pay on Tuesday to employees directly affected by the shutdown — a week before their regularly scheduled paycheck on Oct. 29, according to a Federal Times report. Perhaps this makes up for IBC’s data entry error last month that delayed the paychecks of 40,000 employees. IBC is the payroll provider for agencies including Interior, NASA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Continue reading “Back Pay Is On the Way”

Being a union member has advantages

Ask The Lawyer

By Bill Bransford

Being a union member has advantages

June 3rd, 2013 | Uncategorized

In theory, your rights as a union member should be the same as your rights if you are in a bargaining unit and not a union member. Being a union member means you pay dues. Nonmembers do not pay dues but are supposed to receive representation rights and other benefits related to the union being the exclusive representative of employees in the bargaining unit.

While federal-sector labor unions have an obligation to represent all employees in the bargaining unit fairly, dues-paying members are likely to be more knowledgeable about the union and how it works and are likely to receive services from the union with a smile and enthusiasm that may not necessarily be present if the union is representing someone who is not paying dues. One of the biggest advantages of being in a bargaining unit is a grievance procedure that includes the availability, at the union’s option, of having grievances resolved by an outside arbitrator. Because arbitration is expensive and because it  is difficult to challenge a union’s decision against arbitration, being a dues-paying member is a factor in your favor to obtain the arbitration option, if needed. Arbitration is widely viewed in the labor relations community as more favorable to employees than is the Merit Systems Protection Board. Continue reading “Being a union member has advantages”

The 1% Court—And What We Can Do About It

AFL-CIO Now

 

09/21/2012; Alliance for Justice

 This is a cross-post from the Alliance for Justice blog, Justice Watch. 

The 1% Court—And What We Can Do About It

We all know how big business has eroded the American dream by getting Congress and the executive branch to change the rules to favor corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. But it hasn’t stopped with two branches of government. Corporate special interests have spent decades working to put their thumb on the scales of justice. The campaign finance decision in Citizens United is only the most prominent example.  Continue reading “The 1% Court—And What We Can Do About It”

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