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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) welcomed as appropriate and important a message from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to its managers across the country that they must continue to honor collective bargaining agreements and employee representation rights across a broad range of personnel matters.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the letter from DHS Under Secretary for Management Janet Hale “reflects a welcome understanding on the part of top DHS management of the importance of these agreements to front-line employees—and to the effective functioning of the agency itself.”

Since the agency was created in January, President Kelley said, some evidence has been forthcoming that DHS managers were acting as though these contracts had no validity. However, in her letter to managers across the 22 agencies and departments that merged to become DHS, Hale reminded managers of their obligations to follow negotiated labor contracts.

The DHS letter identified a number of key collective bargaining obligations, including:

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Issuing notices and proposals to unions when contemplating changes in conditions of employment and providing for subsequent bargaining;

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Providing opportunities for union representation when communicating directly with bargaining unit employees on grievances, personnel policies or practices or general conditions of employment;

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Responding to information requests and grievances within applicable time frames;

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Following language in negotiated agreements; and

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Observing principles of “good faith” bargaining.

President Kelley said “it is important that employees know that their negotiated rights are intact and that their managers continue to be obligated to honor those rights.” She added that NTEU “will continue to work with Congress, DHS and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to ensure that the rights of federal employees are protected” in the new agency.

NTEU, which represents some 12,000 employees of the Customs Service who were transferred into DHS, led the fight to protect civil service and collective bargaining rights in the new department.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 federal employees in 29 agencies and departments.