Ralph Smith

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has released new data showing that collective bargaining activities cost federal agencies at least $181.6 million during fiscal year 2024. Because some agencies did not submit the required information, the actual cost was likely higher. Much of that expense is tied to official time—a long-debated practice under which certain federal employees are paid by their agencies while performing union representational duties instead of their regular government work.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) have issued a proposed rule to make it faster and simpler for agencies to fire federal employees for poor performance or misconduct. The rule, called Promoting Employee Accountability, would also retire the Douglas factors, a 12-item checklist MSPB has used for 45 years to decide whether a firing or other punishment was fair.

Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants may feel like their stock investments are on a roller coaster. The overall result has been favorable, but those with diversified investments may feel a sense of relief with the monthly changes now occurring. Volatility is the new normal this year. Here is how the core stock funds in the TSP have fared during the year’s first six months. The TSP’s core stock funds were split in June.