Unions Urge VA to Educate Employees About Rights With COVID-19 Benefits
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg
In a letter last week to Secretary Denis McDonough and Assistant Secretary for Human Resources Gina Grosso, five federal employee unions called on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to better inform its employees about COVID-19 benefits and rights.
The American Federation of Government Employees, National Association of Government Employees, National Federation of Federal Employees, National Nurses United and the Service Employees International Union have requested that a "joint COVID-19 training task force" be formed to improve the department's training for employees on a number of programs intended to keep them safe during the pandemic.
The unions propose that a joint task force design a new set of training focused on COVID-19-related leave and benefits within 60 days and implement it.
For workers' compensation purposes, Congress passed legislation last year that established temporary emergency paid leave for employees with COVID-19 or who care for family members with the virus. Frontline federal employees who test positive for the virus are presumed to have contracted the virus on the job. The Office of Personnel Management encouraged agencies to continue granting administrative leave to employees who were unable to work due to the pandemic despite the emergency paid leave provision expiring last September.
The unions contend that VA employees have not been sufficiently trained on these benefits, leading to uneven implementation and usage by employees and managers. Some administrative leave requests are "arbitrarily denied," while others don't even realize they can request leave. The union representatives blame the decision to "centralize" the department's human resources functions at VA regional centers for the poor training on employee rights and benefits.
“While VA employees are working around the clock at health care facilities across the country, HR representatives are, in most cases, working remotely at the VISN level. As a result, employees with questions about their leave and benefits are left to call HR hotlines and email faceless ‘business partners’ in VISN offices,” the union representatives wrote, “Because of HR centralization, it has become more and more difficult for frontline employees to obtain the assistance and critical resources they need to exercise their rights and understand the leave and other benefits available to them during the pandemic.
The unions pointed out improving training on COVID-19 benefits and programs could be a key to establishing the collaborative labor-management relationship President Biden envisioned in his executive order to promote collective bargaining across the government and private sectors.