OPM Gives 30-Day Deadline on Bargaining Agreements
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is giving agencies a 30-day deadline to submit collective bargaining agreements and arbitration awards “in accordance with EO 13836,” a May executive order that made significant changes to the way agencies interact with federal labor unions.
In a memo from Acting OPM Director Margaret Weichert to federal agency heads, OPM recognizes that parts of the executive order "were challenged and enjoined pending further proceedings,” a reference to multiple lawsuits challenging the administration’s order. However, the memo notes, sections of the executive order “requiring submission of collective bargaining agreements and arbitration awards were unaffected by this and remain in place.”
The portion of the executive order in question includes “key document reporting requirements…requiring agencies to submit to OPM each term collective bargaining agreement and its expiration date as well as arbitration awards.”
OPM is renewing its call for the information in support of the development of “a collective bargaining database to facilitate making CBAs publicly accessible on the Internet in the future.” To that end, the memo notes, “scanned versions of CBAs will not be accepted. Documents submitted to OPM are required to be in optical character recognition text-readable format.
The memo, issued on November 20th, advises that the CBAs and their expiration dates should be submitted within 30 days. Further, agency heads are ordered to also submit “new term CBAs and their expiration dates to the OPM Director within 30 days of each CBA’s effective date,” as well as submitting arbitration awards to OPM within 10 days of their determination.
A full copy of the memo, including links to relevant resources and previous executive orders is available via the Chief Human Capital Officer Council website.
