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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today expressed her great disappointment at the decision of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to file an appeal as part of its continuing efforts to impose counterproductive and unlawful personnel rules on its employees.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the latest DHS appeal “is clear evidence of this administration’s determination to impose its will whatever the cost,” whether that be counted in wasted taxpayer dollars or by generating a devastating negative impact on employee morale.

NTEU also announced that it has filed a cross-appeal in the case. The cross-appeal addresses certain aspects of the court’s original decision in which the court did not fully adopt NTEU’s views. These include the extent to which DHS is authorized to narrow the subjects of bargaining and the legitimacy of the new Homeland Security Labor Relations Board.

In the suit filed by NTEU against the DHS personnel system, a federal court has twice declared the regulations illegal for failing to comply with congressional mandates spelled out in the Homeland Security Act (HSA), which established DHS.

In August, the court enjoined DHS from implementing major portions of the regulations—which would severely impact employees’ collective bargaining, due process and appeal rights—and then rejected a later DHS effort to narrow the injunction to allow it to move ahead.

“The most frustrating part of this is the continued refusal by DHS to take the much wiser step of responding to our efforts to get the agency to sit down with NTEU to work out new personnel rules,” President Kelley said. “Unfortunately, because DHS chose to file an appeal, rather than sit down with NTEU, we had no choice but to file a cross-appeal.”

To have any chance to succeed and to withstand our legal challenges, she added, the DHS rules “must ensure the ability of the agency to accomplish its mission and ensure that DHS employees are provided with the statutory rights Congress intended. These are not contradictory goals.”

Kelley was critical of the failure of DHS leaders to respond to NTEU’s repeated attempts to meet to discuss how this can be done. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff has not responded to NTEU’s request for such a meeting.

“Rather than act in everyone’s best interest by engaging in such discussions,” the NTEU leader said, “DHS continues to rebuff NTEU’s good-faith efforts to accomplish those ends.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including some 14,000 in DHS’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.