Labor Relations Watchdog Rewrites Its Privacy Filing Cabinet Rules
Published Date: 5/22/2025
Notice
Summary
The Federal Labor Relations Authority’s Office of Inspector General is updating its records system to better protect sensitive info and clarify who’s covered. They’re adding new rules about how info is used and making the system clearer and more secure. These changes kick in on June 23, 2025, unless people send in comments before then.
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 5 costs, 0 mixed.
Much broader sharing of investigative records
The FLRA OIG added many new and revised routine uses that let it share investigative records with a wide set of outside parties, including Federal, State, Tribal, local, foreign, or self-regulatory agencies, the U.S. Department of Justice, contractors, licensing boards, NARA, former OIG employees, and others. This explicitly expands who may receive records about investigations or people involved with investigations.
Records can be used in computer-matching and debt collection
The FLRA OIG may disclose records to other agencies and public authorities for computer matching to prevent and detect fraud, support law enforcement, and to collect debts and overpayments owed to any agency. That means information in OIG files can be matched against other databases for program integrity and collection purposes.
Limits on access and contesting of records (Privacy Act exemptions)
The system is exempt from many Privacy Act access, notification, and contesting provisions under 5 U.S.C. 552a(j)(2) and (k)(2). The notice directs individuals to submit written inquiries under 5 CFR part 2412 for access to any non-exempt records.
Long-term retention for certain substantiated cases
Substantiated FLRA OIG investigation files meeting specified criteria are permanent, including cases involving senior agency personnel, extensive media coverage, Congressional investigation, substantial amounts of money (over $5,000), or cases leading to substantive policy changes. All other investigation files are destroyed 10 years after the end of the fiscal year in which the case closes.
Complaints and complainants explicitly added
The system now explicitly includes a new category of records for complaints and adds 'complainants' as a defined category of people covered by the system. Records will be retrievable by the name of the complainant or a unique control number assigned to each complaint.
Records reclassified as Sensitive/CUI with safeguards
FLRA OIG changed the security classification from 'Unclassified' to 'Sensitive but Unclassified and/or Controlled Unclassified Information' and describes physical and electronic safeguards (locked cabinets, locked rooms, password-protected systems).
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Key Dates
Department and Agencies
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