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Civil Rights for Civil Servants
Hear Shaun Southworth and Lydia Taylor explain federal employee rights, public service, workplace systems, and the people navigating them.
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VA Says Your Union Contract Expired. The Court Order It Cites Calls the Question "Unresolved."
The VA has told employees that their AFGE union contract has expired and that managers now follow VA policy alone. The appeals court order the VA is relying on says something diffe...
BOP Lost in Court, Re-Terminated Its Union Contract Anyway, and Lost Again
What happens when an agency loses in court and does the same thing again under a new label? Bureau of Prisons employees just saw the answer. A federal judge in Connecticut ruled th...
Labor Department to Recertify Every Approved Accommodation Each Year: What Employees Should Know
Your agency approved your reasonable accommodation. Can it make you prove you still need it every year? At the Department of Labor, the answer is now yes, and the process starts ne...
FLRA Puts Union Election Rules Back After Court Ruling: What the Fine Print Says
The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has put its old union election rules back on the books after a federal judge threw out the board’s attempt to move that power to its th...
Schedule G Explained: 25 Political Appointees, 22 at the VA, and No Public Record for a Year
Schedule G is a new category of political appointee that the White House created in July 2025, and for more than a year there was no public record that anyone was serving in it. Th...
DOGE Alumni Startups Raise Half a Billion Dollars: What Federal Ethics Rules Say
Startups founded or bankrolled by DOGE alumni have raised at least half a billion dollars, according to a Washington Post report published October 12, 2026. At least six DOGE alumn...
HHS Closes Accommodation Requests Over “Missing” Medical Records: Your 45-Day EEO Deadline
HHS is “administratively closing” reasonable accommodation requests over medical documentation it says it never received, and employees at the CDC and NIH say they have timestamped...
2027 Federal Pay Freeze: What the White House Letter Says and What Congress Can Still Change
The 2027 federal pay freeze is not final yet. A White House letter sent to Congress on August 26 sets the 2027 civilian pay adjustment at zero, and the proposal lands as Social Sec...
Third Circuit Erases Ruling on EEOC’s Penn Subpoena: What Federal Employees Should Know
The Third Circuit has erased a lower-court ruling that enforced an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) subpoena seeking the personal phone numbers, emails, and home addr...
Five Hatch Act Cases, One Ended a Career: What OSC's Settlements Mean Before the Midterms
The Office of Special Counsel announced on September 30 that five federal employees settled Hatch Act cases, with suspensions of three to ten days and one career-ending outcome. Wi...
Stalled Medical Telework Request? EEOC's Rule Gives Your Agency a Deadline
If your medical telework request has been sitting for weeks with no answer, or came back with a one-line "return-to-office applies to everyone," there is a rule that works in your ...
AFGE Sues EPA Over Discipline of 139 Employees Who Signed a Dissent Letter
An AFGE lawsuit against EPA alleges that 139 employees were disciplined for signing a dissent letter that EPA's own ethics office acknowledged was protected speech. The complaint, ...
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