Ibidun Roberts: The union seeks fairness in the agreement. That is why we always offer conditions that require fair action from management. B for example, by communicating something to employees, by allowing employees to react, management performs due diligence, such as an investigation before making a decision. So these are things that the Union would impose. And the panel pulled out these things. There are therefore several clauses in which the Agency suggested that they would simply comply with the law, and the panel gave them that none of the procedures were in place. It will not be clear how management will carry out these tasks, because the body has resumed the procedures that we would have proposed and negotiated. Ibidun Roberts: Sure. I mean, with the Accountability Act, what is interesting is that the panel has decided on issues related to the Accountability Act. Unfortunately, they have interpreted the law in their decisions, which they should not do. So we have some proposals imposed by the panel that are in fact against the law. For example, the Agency has proposed that employees should only be able to give oral answers because that is all that is permitted by the Accountability Act, which is simply not true.

So that is what we had in the agreement, which absolutely has to be set aside because it is false legal evidence. But as far as official time is concerned, yes, they use the executive to do so. And so that`s something we were hoping to be cancelled. The panel gave us six, five hours per rate unit employee, which is much less than even the executive organizing one employee per bargaining unit. And the VA, which we just talked about with the Accountability Act, is particularly unique. Other agencies do not deal with the accountability law and these shortened deadlines. As a result, the union has to deal with these reduced deadlines, at a lower level of evidence, and there is even less time than other agencies to deal with these issues. However, a VA spokesperson told the Federal Times that the changes they want to implement are aimed at improving care: “Whether by condemning the MISSION Act or denouncing the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, AFGE has fought hard for the status quo and opposed attempts to improve VA`s work for veterans and their families.