A group of six Democratic senators on Wednesday introduced legislation to ensure federal employees have input into how agencies respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Federal Labor-Management COVID Partnership Act (S. 4347), introduced by Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, would establish a task force of federal officials and representatives from unions and other federal employee groups to review agencies’ policies related to the COVID-19 emergency and make recommendations. It also establishes a governmentwide directive for agencies to consult with federal employee unions when developing and implementing pandemic-related policies.
Among the policies under the task force’s purview would be telework, leave, cleaning, training and the availability of personal protective equipment. The bill also orders agencies to create their own labor-management councils to develop workforce policies during the pandemic, effectively temporarily reviving collaborative bodies last employed under the Obama administration.
The main task force would be made up of the director of the Office of Personnel Management, the director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the assistant Labor secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, the Office of Management and Budget’s deputy director for management, the chairwoman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, five representatives from federal employee unions and one representative from the Federal Managers Association.
Since the start of the pandemic, federal employees have complained about an initially haphazard response from agency leaders, reporting that agencies were slow to adopt widespread telework programs, robust cleaning programs at federal facilities, and a paucity of personal protective equipment for federal workers who cannot work remotely. In recent days, federal employee unions have ob ..
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