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Washington, D.C.—A federal court judge has agreed to a request by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) for a prompt hearing on the union’s motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent implementation of new personnel rules by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The hearing on the motion is scheduled for 2:30 p.m., Thursday, July 14 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before Judge Rosemary M. Collyer.

NTEU, leading a coalition of five unions, in June filed the motion for a preliminary injunction as part of the unions’ lawsuit alleging that the DHS regulations, which are to take effect on Aug. 1, fail to guarantee employees’ collective bargaining rights as required by the Homeland Security Act (HSA), which established DHS.

That legal step came after the filing by NTEU of a motion for summary judgment in the case asking the court to strike down the regulations as invalid.

In a memorandum in support of their motion, the unions argue, among other things, that they have raised “serious questions” about the legality of the regulations, and there is a “substantial likelihood” they will prevail on the merits of the challenge since the new regulations far overstep any authority granted the department by Congress in the HSA.

The NTEU-led coalition also notes that DHS will suffer no harm from a delay in implementing the new personnel regulations while the unions’ legal challenges are decided. DHS has been operating under existing federal sector labor law since its creation more than two years ago, and continues to do so even six months after it advanced the final regulations.

The unions, said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley, merely seek a continuation of the status quo while the court addresses the merits of their challenges. If the department moves ahead on Aug. 1 as it wants to, she noted, DHS employees and their unions will suffer serious and immediate injury—including injury to workplace rights that clearly cannot be corrected by the payment of money damages awarded after the fact.

For example, the unions told the court, multiple provisions that typically appear in federal sector collective bargaining agreements would be unenforceable under the new regulations. These include provisions governing the assignment of overtime—with a resulting serious adverse impact on family life; those governing the assignment of work; those affecting bargaining over the impact and implementation of management decisions; and provisions governing the mitigation of penalties, among others.

“Injuries…like these, which affect the bargaining process itself” have been declared sufficient in other cases to warrant issuance of a preliminary injunction, the unions said.

The 2:30 p.m. hearing on Thursday will be conducted in Judge Collyer’s courtroom at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, 333 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including more than 14,000 in DHS.