The Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), made up of 10 presidents appointed to resolve deadlocks in agency union negotiations, significantly changed the agreement in its November 5 ruling, allegedly to bring the labor contract into compliance with several executive orders of the Trump administration, which brings in federal staff. Some of the bargaining positions set by the VA stem from the requirements set out by three executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in May 2018: reduce the official time for union representatives, remove union representatives from agency offices and renegotiate collective agreements to meet those priorities. Ibidun Roberts: Well, the current agreement is what we call rushed, once the VA has opened it, our language in the Treaty says that the provisions will continue until we reach a new agreement. So that`s where we`re with the current agreement, it`s continuing until we get to a new one. So we negotiated with the VA for half a month, and the VA requested the services of the Federal Service Impasses Panel, which is the authority of the federal government to break the deadlock. Like us government employees, we cannot go on strike, someone has to break the deadlock, and that is what this agency is doing. VA asked for your help. They asked us to defend our proposals in an opinion that had to be issued on June 3. Then we had the opportunity to refute the other`s arguments, and it was just July 5. For now, the council is arguing. — we are just waiting for a decision from them. Tom Temin: Okay, and before we go into some of those details, I mentioned about a quarter of a million, I think there are 270,000 employees on the National Council goes to AFGE.

Is there an agreement for everyone in the Council? Tom Temin: Let`s talk about the accountability act. What impact will that have on what is happening in the area of labour relations and what do you want, because it would be done in the treaty? Tom Temin: Give us an idea of the situation in which the whole treaty is in terms of the timing and expiration of the existing treaty. Tom Temin: And the executive orders of the Trump administration cover a lot of territories, and what can we reasonably expect from an answer, would you want to see in an agreement in terms of official time and all the other provisions? “There is no reason to believe that the Authority`s interpretation of a provision of its enabling statute would not lead the court to take into account the appointment clause, due process and legal fitness rights that are formulated here, which may require a review of the specific functions of the panel and the Authority in the management of the various provisions of the statute” wrote the government.