Changes to NASA’s RIF Policy

GESTA recently received notification of Agency Management’s intent to modify NASA’s policies and procedures governing Reductions in Force (RIFs), or layoffs in the Federal Government, with its release of a revised RIF NASA Interim Directive (NID). To be clear, this is not yet notification that a RIF is underway. IFPTE has National Consultation Rights (NCR) with NASA which requires GESTA/IFPTE Local 29 to be informed of any substantive change in conditions of employment proposed by the Agency and be permitted time to present input, views, and recommendations regarding those changes, prior to policy updates being adopted by the Agency. Before a RIF may be implemented, the Agency should have a RIF policy in place that aligns to the federal regulations for RIFs, specifically 5 CFR Part 351. It is important for GESTA to review the revisions to the NID to ensure the rights of employees are still protected accordingly, should a RIF be implemented.

When an agency must abolish positions, the RIF regulations determine whether an employee keeps his or her present position, or whether the employee has a right to a different position. A RIF is the systematic process a federal agency must use when it reduces its workforce due to budget cuts, reorganizations, or a lack of available work. The RIF process isn’t arbitrary; it is highly regulated to protect federal employees and promote fairness. While it is currently unknown whether NASA intends to implement RIFs at its Centers, GESTA values the importance of informing employees of their rights to review changes in NASA’s RIF policy. The current NASA Interim Directive (NID) for a RIF may be found here. The newly revised RIF NID was emailed by GESTA to bargaining unit employees on August 20th (Note if you did not receive this email, please double check your Spam folder or Quarantine, as Outlook appears to have sent the email to Spam in many cases.)

GESTA has rapidly formed a review team to review the new RIF NID. Bargaining Unit Employees (BUEs) are asked to provide any inputs by this Friday, August 29th, in order to allow the review team time to collect all the comments and edits for inclusion in GESTA’s National Consultation submission to NASA HQ by Friday, September 19th. Agency management has stated that “substantive updates were made that resulted in changes to all aspects of the current [NASA Interim Directive/NID],” so a thorough review is needed.

Note that NASA agency policies and procedures cannot supersede federal government RIF policy, regulations and procedures. In addition, our current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) contains previously agreed upon RIF procedures in Article 18, which comports with the federal RIF regulation as outlined in the OPM Workforce Reshaping Operations Handbook.