The Department of Defense has plans to transition more than 1,200 information technology employees from their current offices into the Defense Information Systems Agency, but union officials say that the failure to discuss such plans with federal labor organizations violates U.S. Code.
The American Federation of Government Employees became aware April 12, 2019, that DoD was beginning to execute such plans by transferring IT personnel from the Defense Contract Management Agency to DISA.
The transfer is part of a larger initiative to consolidate non-service networks at the DoD.
Under Title 5 of U.S. Code, a labor organization that is the exclusive representative of a substantial number of employees at an agency is entitled to be informed of any “substantive change” in the conditions of employment proposed by the agency and be offered the time to review those changes and present their views.
The agency is then required to consider those views and provide written documentation of why they chose to make the change.
According to a May 28 AFGE news release, the union represents approximately 300,000 employees at the DoD, and therefore filed an unfair labor practice charge May 20 with the Federal Labor Relations Authority to justify why they should have been consulted in the transition.
“The Department of Defense has clearly violated the law by failing to notify AFGE of this proposal and not allowing the union to provide our views and recommendations regarding these proposed changes and the impact they could have on the employees we represent,” AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. said in the news release.
According to AFGE, this is not the first time DoD has lapsed in its responsibility to inform the union of employee transfers, as they currently have an unfair labor practice charge pending over DoD plans to consolidate medical personnel under the new Defense Health Agency.
“The changes DoD is proposing would affect tens of thousands of employees, but the department has made no attempt to communicate with these workers or get their input into these plans,” AFGE Defense Conference Chair Don Hale said in the news release. “Employees deserve a seat at the table when decisions are made that affect their jobs, and we will keep fighting to make sure that happens.”
