At the last bargaining session, NTEU and the FDIC were joined by a federal mediator for a discussion on the outstanding articles of Annual Leave, Personnel Records and Access to Information, and Meetings During Conferences.

Annual Leave
NTEU is opposing management's efforts to change the longstanding system for approving leave requests, arguing that the current standard has worked well for years. The FDIC wants the standard changed from annual leave will be approved unless it creates a severe workload problem to "approval unless it would adversely impact the employer’s workload, staffing, or mission requirements." Under FDIC's reasoning as to the need for the change, an employee's request for leave could be denied simply on the grounds that it inconveniences managers or other employees. The FDIC asserts that this change is needed because the current standard is too high and causes workplace problems, but the agency has yet to identify one instance when work was not accomplished because leave was granted under the current standard.

Personnel Records and Access to Information
Under the current contract, the FDIC is required to show employees any material before placing it in their official or unofficial files and to provide them copies within five days of adding it to a file. However, the FDIC now wants to exempt "memory joggers" from the provision. Memory joggers are a supervisor's brief notes on an employee's performance or conduct made at the time it happens. NTEU wants the FDIC to stick with the current contract language, which protects employees from having to defend themselves against performance or conduct allegations long after their memory of events has faded. The union also believes that employees should be entitled to know about anything important enough to warrant a contemporaneous record.

Meetings During Conferences
Another change the FDIC is proposing and NTEU is fighting is in regard to management's obligation to provide the union with notice of training conferences and make a good faith effort to obtain space at no cost to NTEU. NTEU uses this space to meet with employees at those conferences during non-duty hours. Such meetings give employees face time with their NTEU representatives and a chance to ask questions and voice concerns, which is especially important for those employees who spend much of their time on the road. The FDIC maintains that training conferences are excluded from the provision, but NTEU is using past practice and contract language to refute the claim.

What's Next?
The next round of bargaining with a mediator is set for the week of June 21-25. In an effort to expedite negotiations, NTEU and FDIC may hold bargaining sessions in the weeks between mediation.