Three executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in May to address what he considers a bloated and inefficient federal workforce are working as intended, administration officials say, though Department of Veterans Affairs workers and union members say the implementation is hurting workers -- and veterans.
The workers and union members say the orders, in combination with VA accountability legislation signed by Trump last year, are creating chaos and hurting morale. A VA spokesman said the new rules are holding employees accountable for their performance -- or lack of it.
Trump claimed success in comments to the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in July, pointing to the number of fired employees as a benchmark for progress.
"We've gotten rid of a lot of people over the last year," he said. "Only the bad ones. The good ones, we cherish."
On July 20, the VA announced that it had implemented one of Trump's orders, restricting union leaders from doing union business on official time. The VA said the changes are freeing employees to serve veterans rather than "union bosses."
Union leaders say they are serving their members and the agency with the union work they do on official time -- by performing human resources-related functions such as filing grievances and handling contract disputes and leave requests.
In June 2017, Trump signed the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act into law, changing the process by which the VA reviews employee-performance deficiencies.
The department, which serves about 20 million veterans, had been under pressure to shorten the wait times in claims processing and at its medical centers.
Although Trump promotes the firings made possible under the law, VA employees -- speaking in their capacity as union leaders -- said the changes have hurt morale throughout the agency.
Anthony Gallagher, a union president in San Diego, reviews disability claims at the Veterans Benefits Administration. He serves about 625 VA workers.
Gallagher described an agency at war with its own employees. He said that because of the accountability law, he's been in a constant battle to protect his members.
"They're taking away our rights for due process that are in our [union] contract," he said. "Basically, the [law] has turned us into at-will employees."
The VA employs more than 300,000 people. Through June, according to the latest numbers from the VA, 2,743 employees had been fired since Trump took office.
David Cox Sr., the president of the 700,000-member American Federation of Government Employees, said the firings are hurting veterans -- and aren't improving the agency.
"I don't know any business that has fired its way to success," he said.
Of the fired employees, 60 held supervisory job titles, including former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, who was fired in March.
The agency's press secretary, Curt Cashour, said restructuring under the new law has resulted in improved performance in the benefits administration.
"When it comes to compensation and pension rating claims, VA has reduced the average completion time from 113 days to 99 days," he said in an email.
Lee Blackmon, the director of the National Association of Government Employees, another union for federal workers, said the firings were affecting morale and patient care.
"Employees are under stress, tension increases [and] call-outs go up," she said. "It's not a happy or good place to work right now. If you feel threatened, what kind of care can you give?"
The three executive orders Trump signed in May directed federal agencies to aggressively negotiate labor contracts, further streamlined the firing process and put strict limits on "official time" -- government funding of union work done at the agency, which was authorized in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
More than a dozen unions have sued the Trump administration, claiming the orders violate the 1978 law.
Arguments were heard in July, and a judge is expected to rule on Friday.
Previously, employees in leadership positions in the union could devote up to 100 percent of their workdays performing union-related work. Under the new rules, no more than 25 percent of official time may be used for union business.
A Section on 08/20/2018