A third-party arbitrator is ordering the Department of Health and Human Services to walk back its return-to-office mandate for thousands of employees represented by one of its unions.
Arbitrator Michael J. Falvo ruled on Monday that HHS must “rescind the return-to-office directive,” and must immediately reinstate remote work and telework agreements for members of the National Treasury Employees Union.
HHS rescinded those workplace flexibility agreements early last year, after President Donald Trump ordered federal employees to return to the office full-time.
Falvo found that HHS committed an unfair labor practice by unilaterally terminating telework and remote agreements, without regard to its five-year collective bargaining agreement with NTEU. The labor contract, which covers 2023 through 2028, states the agency can only terminate telework and remote work agreements “for cause.” That includes emergency situations and cases when an employee falls short of a “fully satisfactory” performance rating.
The ruling will impact thousands of HHS employees represented by NTEU. Its members include employees at the Food and Drug Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Administration for Children and Families, the Administration on Community Living, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the National Center for Health Statistics and the HHS Office of the Secretary.
Falvo is also ordering HHS to post a signed notice, “admitting that the agency violated the statute by repudiating the collective bargaining agreement.” The arbitrator wrote that his ruling does not limit NTEU from “seeking additional remedies to the extent permitted by law.”
HHS officials argued that Trump’s return-to-office presidential memorandum supersedes the collective bargaining agreement. But the 1978 Federal Services Labor-Management Relations Statute makes it an unfair labor practice for an agency “to enforce any rule or regulation … which is in conflict with any applicable collective bargaining agreement if the agreement was in effect before the rule or regulation was prescribed.”
According to Falvo, the Federal Labor Relations Authority set a precedent in previous labor disputes that a presidential memorandum “is not a governmentwide rule or regulation that the employer is obligated by law to implement immediately upon issuance.”
“These cases compel the conclusion that the agency breached the agreement and violated the statute,” he wrote.
The arbitrator decided Trump’s return-to-office memo does not override telework and remote work protections outlined in NTEU’s collective bargaining agreement. HHS did not respond to a request for comment. NTEU declined to comment.
NTEU Chapter 282, which covers FDA headquarters employees, told members in an email that HHS is likely to appeal the arbitrator’s decision and has 30 days to do so. The union’s message states, “NTEU will push the agency to accept the ruling and restore your rights without delay.”
“This is a significant win that reaffirms that telework and remote work rights negotiated in a term contract cannot be unilaterally taken away,” NTEU Chapter 282 told members.
The Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs recently told employees that some of its employees will be eligible for remote work, because the agency is “extremely challenged” covering rent expenses for a fully in-office workforce.
Meanwhile, a second arbitrator ruled that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “violated statutory obligations” to bargain with the American Federation of Government Employees over implementation of the administration’s return-to-office directive.
The arbitrator in this dispute determined CMS wasn’t required to negotiate with the union over the administration’s return-to-office mandate, but did have an obligation to ensure implementation complied with its collective bargaining agreement with AFGE.
The arbitrator ordered CMS to meet and negotiate with AFGE over the “effects of the implementation of the directive on work/life balance of employees.”
Trump touted his return-to-office mandate at a White House press briefing on Tuesday, where he looked back on the accomplishments of his first year in office.. Trump told reporters that when he took office last year, “we had so many of our federal workers who wouldn’t come into work.”
“We don’t want them sitting in their home, on their bed, working. We want them in an office that we’re paying for in Washington, D.C., or wherever it may be. And we’ve largely taken care of that mess,” Trump said. “I guarantee you they’re out on the ballfields. I guarantee you they’re out playing golf. And you can’t run a country or a company that way.”
Trump’s presidential memorandum directed agencies to terminate remote work and telework agreements, but also stated that the return-to-office mandate must be “implemented consistent with applicable law.”
“Reasonable persons could have different notions whether a presidential memorandum (or an executive order) is such a ‘rule or regulation’ under ‘applicable law.’ On January 20, 2025, what ‘applicable law’ required was not a matter of first impression,” Falvo wrote.
NTEU filed a grievance against HHS last February, after the agency issued a directive requiring all bargaining unit employees to report to the office on a full-time basis.
Union officials argued that HHS refused to negotiate with NTEU before the return-to-office memo took effect, and would agree to “post-implementation bargaining.”
HHS officials denied the grievance and told the union that an agency head “retains the statutory right to determine overall telework levels and to exclude positions from telework eligibility.”
Christina Ballance, the executive director of the agency’s National Labor and Employee Relations Office, told the arbitrator that HHS “was obligated to comply with the presidential memorandum.”
“Ultimately, the president is our chief, and if he directs that employees return to offices in person, the agency is required to do so,” Ballance said in her testimony.
HHS officials rejected NTEU’s claims that it terminated all telework and remote work agreements. They said the agency still allows situational and ad-hoc telework, as well as workplace flexibilities for military spouses and reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities.
But Federal News Network first reported last month that a new HHS policy restricts employees with disabilities from using telework as an interim accommodation, while the agency processes their reasonable accommodation request.
HHS is also centralizing the processing of reasonable accommodation requests on behalf of its component agencies. As a result, it is inheriting a backlog of requests that HHS officials expect will take about six to eight months to review.
The new EU-funded GCVE project is breaking dependence on US databases to track software flaws. Discover how this decentralised system aims to ensure global cybersecurity.
Crypto pundit Wimar has claimed that crypto exchanges are manipulating the Bitcoin price, causing it to crash from its 2026 high. This comes amid recent developments with the Trump tariffs, which have caused the flagship crypto to also decline.
Crypto Pundit Accuses Crypto Exchanges Of Manipulating Bitcoin Price
In an X post, Wimar asserted that crypto exchanges are manipulating the Bitcoin price. He noted how BTC just dumped from $95,500 to $91,900 with no news. The pundit claimed it is the same script, over and over again, as the flagship crypto rose from $89,000 to $95,000 and has now fallen to $91,000, just as it did when it rose from $85,000 to $88,000 and then fell to $84,000.
Wimar claimed that this is a liquidity hunt, alluding to the flows to prove that the Bitcoin price is manipulated. He noted that within minutes, Wintermute, Binance, Coinbase, and ETF-linked wallets were all active simultaneously. Large blocks were said to have moved from exchange to exchange, with huge market buys hitting thin books, and then, just as fast, these tokens were dumped.
The crypto pundit also highlighted Arkham data, noting that the flows tell the real story. Wimar claimed that coins move into exchanges right after the pump, which he stated is not a coincidence. The pundit further remarked that these crypto exchanges wait for a setup where liquidity is low, leverage is high, and funding is stretched.
Wimar asserted that these crypto exchanges run the same play every time, where they first pump the Bitcoin price fast on thin books to trigger FOMO and then liquidate shorts. Retail investors then see green candles and open long positions because the price action appears to be a breakout, but they fall into the trap, according to the pundit.
Wimar stated that once enough people are stuck in leverage, the coins hit crypto exchanges and selling starts, leading to a Bitcoin price crash. The pundit accused these exchanges of dumping into the demand they just created, forcing fresh longs to get liquidated and farming both long and short traders with no news.
BTC’s Current Price Action Isn’t Based On Headlines
Wimar doubled down on his accusation of crypto exchanges being responsible for the Bitcoin price crash, stating that BTC doesn’t move like this because of headlines. He claimed that it moves like because leverage piles up, and someone decides it is “payday.” As such, the pundit suggested that the Trump tariffs fears aren’t what is sparking this recent market crash.
Trump had announced fresh tariffs on France, the U.K., the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Finland, and Norway over the weekend. The Bitcoin price had remained unchanged following the announcement, but began to crash following reports that the European Union (EU) was considering retaliatory tariffs.
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $90,900, down over 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com
Crypto prices crashed on Monday morning, with the total crypto market cap dropping 2.4% to $3.2 trillion as investor sentiment further deteriorated amid fresh tariff war concerns. Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest crypto asset, dropped 3% to nearly $92,250 on…
Hundreds of federal employees, union members and other workforce advocates gathered in front of the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday afternoon to urge the passage of legislation that would restore their collective bargaining rights.
After the Protect America’s Workforce Act cleared the House in December, federal unions have been pushing over the last several weeks for the Senate to take up the bill’s companion legislation.
The bill, if enacted, would restore collective bargaining for an estimated two-thirds of the federal workforce. In effect, it would reverse two executive orders President Donald Trump signed last year that called on most executive branch agencies to terminate their federal union contracts on the grounds of “national security.”
“It’s about ensuring federal workers are treated with dignity and respect. Collective bargaining rights ensure our jobs and protect frontline workers whose voice in the service matters, and it needs to be heard,” Terry Scott, national executive vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union and longtime IRS revenue officer, said at the union rally Wednesday. “It’s a path towards accountability in government. It’s a path towards ensuring that the civil service recruits and retains top talent to keep America moving.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) speaks to a crowd of federal employees, union members and advocates to push for the passage of the Protect America’s Workforce Act in the Senate. (Photo by Drew Friedman, Federal News Network)
In December, House lawmakers voted 231-195 to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act. The entire Democratic Caucus, along with 20 Republicans, voted in favor of the legislation. The bill’s passage came after a discharge petition reached the required signature threshold to force a House floor vote.
The Senate companion bill, first introduced in September and led by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), has gained the support of the entire Democratic Caucus. Two Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), are also co-sponsors of the bill.
At Wednesday’s federal union rally, Van Hollen criticized the president’s broad move to strip collective bargaining rights from federal employees at a majority of agencies.
“This was just a sham and a farce to deny patriotic federal employees the opportunity to participate in a union, to protect their rights,” Van Hollen said. “By protecting the federal workforce, we also protect the American people and the good work that you do on behalf of the American people.”
In March 2025, Trump ordered most agencies to cancel their contracts with federal unions, on the grounds that those agencies work primarily in national security. The president signed a second executive order last August, expanding the number of agencies instructed to bar federal unions from bargaining on behalf of employees.
Randy Erwin, national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said Trump’s action “blatantly violates the law.”
“It is by far the biggest attack that we have ever seen on collective bargaining rights in the history of this country. We cannot allow it to continue,” Erwin said Wednesday at the rally. “Unions have been bargaining in the federal sector since the Kennedy administration, and there are no examples of that compromising our national security.”
In addition to the legislation, multiple federal unions have sued the Trump administration over the pair of executive orders. One lawsuit from the American Federation of Government Employees argues that the administration took an overly broad interpretation of agencies that work primarily in national security, and that many of the agencies impacted by Trump’s orders have nothing to do with national security.
Following AFGE’s lawsuit, a federal judge last April blocked the administration from enforcing the executive order. After an appeals court later overturned that decision, several agencies moved forward with “de-recognizing” their unions and rescinding collective bargaining agreements.
As a result, recent federal workforce data shows that a significant percentage of federal employees has lost the ability to join a bargaining unit over the last year. Governmentwide, bargaining unit eligibility has dropped 18%, from 56% to 38%, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management.
At the same time, there has been a 20% increase in ineligibility for union representation. About half of the federal workforce is currently not eligible to join a bargaining unit. Another 12% of federal employees are eligible for union representation, but have not officially joined a bargaining unit.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) speaks to a crowd of federal employees and union representatives to push for the passage of the Protect America's Workforce Act. (Photo by Drew Friedman, Federal News Network)
France’s Ministry of the Armed Forces has taken a significant step to deepen its use of AI by awarding a framework agreement to French firm Mistral AI.
France’s Ministry of the Armed Forces has taken a significant step to deepen its use of AI by awarding a framework agreement to French firm Mistral AI.
Italian law enforcement agencies have detained a group of people who sold counterfeit money through a “DarkWeb”.
With the assistance of the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office, eight criminals were detained in Naples who manufactured and distributed counterfeit euros across Europe. To sell their goods, the criminals used “DarkWeb” shops and sent counterfeit money by mail. In July 2018, an investigation was launched against a group of people accused of manufacturing and selling counterfeit banknotes worth more than 120 thousand euros. The counterfeiters had accomplices in many countries of the European Union, which greatly simplified their work.
The criminals acted according to a fairly simple scheme: they placed ads for the sale of counterfeit euros of various denominations on “DarkWeb” resources, and after receiving the order, they sent their invoice to pay for the goods in bitcoins. To deliver the parcels, they chose international mail, through which they sent toys and various vintage items with banknotes of different denominations hidden in them. During the investigation, European border guards intercepted about 50 packages in total. The total amount of money earned by the criminals in the period from 2012 to 2023 is almost 150 thousand euros. In addition to the counterfeiters, the police detained more than 30 buyers and identified fifty accomplices.
The investigation resulted in the arrest of a group of counterfeiters and the liquidation of their printing plant in Naples.
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