Four years ago, the last administration signed the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act into law during the summer of 2017. Yet despite the law’s name, its true intention was simple: attack workers and weaken the protections secured for them by their union. As soon as possible, AFGE-NVAC took action to protect the rights afforded to our members under the 2011 Master Agreement, including ensuring workers received performance improvement plans (PIPs) and 90 days to improve their performance before being disciplined or terminated under the Act.

Now, more than four years later, we are relieved to report that the VA started contacting former VA employees who were unjustly removed under the Accountability Act without first receiving a PIP. This is a hard fought victory that will make a real difference in the lives of our colleagues who were unjustly targeted by the VA.

Here’s a quick recap of how we got here:

• After the Accountability Act was passed in 2017, the VA claimed it no longer had to provide workers with PIPs before taking performance-based disciplinary action under the Act. Despite NVAC’s early efforts to explain to the VA that its legal position was incorrect, the VA refused to comply with our contract and began suspending, demoting, and firing VA workers without giving them a chance to improve their performance.
• In 2018, an Arbitrator ruled in our favor, ordering the VA to comply with the 2011 contract, rescind any performance-based actions taken against employees who did not first receive a PIP that complied with the contract, and required the VA to reinstate affected employees, as well as provide back pay, leave, other benefits, and attorney’s fees.
• The 2018 arbitration ruling was upheld in November 2020 in a 2-1 ruling by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) -- yet the VA still refused to begin the process of making employees whole.
• Following months of delay, NVAC filed an unfair labor practice against the VA on May 17, 2021, to enforce the 2018 Arbitration ruling. Following the FLRA’s ruling in our favor, NVAC requested information from VA central office to identify the group of AFGE Bargaining Unit Employees who may be entitled to back pay, interest, and other relief. At this time, we are still working on developing a full count of the workers who have been impacted.

This is what it looks like when our AFGE family stands together as a union. Yet these are not the only fruits of our work.

In addition to this specific effort, NVAC has been pursuing an additional line of assault against the VA’s attacks on workers, particularly having to do with VA leadership’s refusal to bargain with AFGE-NVAC as it sought to begin implementing the VA Accountability Act in 2017.

As part of the arbitration award secured by AFGE-NVAC, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs was required to issue a notice to all AFGE Bargaining Unit Employees acknowledging the VA’s unlawful conduct.

Once again, we have to reiterate: none of this would have been possible without the impressive solidarity shown by AFGE NVAC members throughout the last four and a half years. Together, we have shown the power of working people.

Know that we will never stop fighting for you, your coworkers, and the brave women and men we care for each and every day!

Thank you for all that you do.

Alma L. Lee, National VA Council, President