Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, OPM NEWS—Memorandum instructs agencies to return to discipline, performance policies of first Trump administration, (Feb 10, 2025)

By Patricia K. Ruiz, J.D.

The memorandum also explains EO 14171’s effect on certain collective bargaining agreement provisions.

A memorandum from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) describes the effect of Executive Order (EO) 14171 entitled Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce, signed by President Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025. EO 14171 revoked EO 14003, Protecting the Federal Workforce, which rescinded several executive orders signed by President Trump regulating the federal workforce. The memorandum states that EO 14171 does not immediately reinstate the orders but instructs agencies to return to the policies of the first Trump administration on discipline and unacceptable performance as soon as practicable.

Discipline and unacceptable performance. The memorandum explains that EO 14171 requires the heads of each executive department and agency to review existing agency actions relating to or arising under sections 3(e)(v) and 3(f) of EO 14003, relating to suspending, revising, or rescinding revisions to discipline and unacceptable performance policies. The agencies should, as soon as practicable, suspend, revise, or rescind such actions identified in the review to return to the policies of the first Trump administration. The memorandum states that agencies should report to OPM no later than March 7, 2025: (1) all policies, including those contained in collective bargaining agreements, enacted, modified, or repealed pursuant to EO 14003; and (2) which such policies have been repealed, modified, or enacted pursuant to EO 14171.

Collective bargaining. Pursuant to EO 14171, agency actions to negotiate over the subjects in 4 U.S.C. § 7106(b)(1) should cease immediately, the memorandum instructs. To the extent agency heads instructed subordinate officials to negotiate over such matters, agency heads should immediately instruct subordinate officials to refrain from negotiating such matters. If any CBA incorporated provisions requiring agency officials to negotiate over such matters, the memorandum instructs agencies to identify those provisions and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, engage affected unions as soon as practicable to suspend, revise, or rescind such requirements in the CBA provisions. By March 7, 2025, agencies should report to OPM on whether they have taken these steps.

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