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Washington, D.C.— Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees, who for years have borne the brunt of illegal actions by local management regarding work schedules and overtime shifts, have moved a step closer to having a say in assignment and other changes with a recent arbitration decision won by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

NTEU had challenged the ongoing refusal of CBP management to bargain with the union over changes in assignment and overtime procedures following the unilateral implementation by CBP of a non-bargained policy. While NTEU recognizes management’s right to assign work and overtime, it has long maintained that CBP has an obligation to bargain over the impact of changes to work assignments. This decision requires CBP to conduct such bargaining with NTEU at the national level over changes in assignment and overtime procedures.

“Our country has put a heavy burden on CBP employees as the first line of defense against terrorists, illegal drugs and contraband—a duty these professionals willingly shoulder,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “At the same time, CBP continues to violate the rights of these frontline employees by refusing to give them a voice in such basic issues as the impact of assignments and overtime. NTEU has fought this policy change for more than five years and we will now seek a proper remedy with the agency.”

In 1995, NTEU had bargained a National Inspectional Assignment Policy (NIAP) with the U.S. Customs Service which served both the agency and employees. Despite its success, Customs unilaterally implemented a Revised NIAP (RNIAP) in October 2001 and declared that it no longer had to bargain over the policy with NTEU. In 2003, the Customs Service became part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the illegal practice continued.

In this national grievance, the arbitrator decided that CBP continues to have an obligation to notify NTEU at the national level—pursuant to the union’s role as the national representative of employees now known as legacy Customs inspectors—of any local changes.

“NTEU continues to believe that the best practice for the agency and the employees would be to bargain local changes at that level. But since our efforts to reinstate that practice have been rebuffed, we are pleased that CBP has now been ordered to honor its bargaining responsibilities to us at the national level,” President Kelley said.

“This is a senseless system that throws employees’ personal schedules up in the air, frustrates employees, and ultimately works to the detriment of the CBP and the American public,” Kelley added. “There is another way and NTEU is committed to restoring sanity to this process.”

The arbitrator has given NTEU and CBP 60 days to determine a remedy to the agency’s illegal practices. If the two parties cannot agree on one during that time period, the arbitrator will impose a remedy.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.