Workforce Bulletin

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) has begun to significantly curtail services as the agency moves to implement a March 14 Executive Order, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, that directs FMCS and other agencies to “reduce the performance of statutory functions and associated personnel to a minimum presence and function required by law.” In response to this Executive Order, FMCS anticipated implementing the agency’s contingency plan, issued in December 2020 in preparation for the potential of a budget-based disruption of agency operations.

As a result, and as noted in a statement FMCS released on March 19th, the agency announced it would examine how to apply the Executive Order in practice moving forward, specifically by ensuring “a coordinated approach to efficiency, optimization, and mission focus.” Among the immediate effects is that, on March 26, most, if not all of FMCS mediators were placed on administrative leave pending layoff, according to multiple news sources.

by Christina J. Fletcher

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has increased its efforts to encourage large corporations to enter into Nationwide Universal Agreements to Mediate (UAM).  To date, more than 200 private-sector employers, including several Fortune 500 companies, have entered into UAM agreements with the EEOC at the national level.  Additionally, EEOC district offices have entered into 1,743 mediation agreements with employers at the local level.

The EEOC’s focus on UAMs, which apply to individual-charges of discrimination, but not to class ...