News/Events

Aug 8, 01:31 PM

A sign for the Social Security Administration is seen in Los Angeles, Friday, July 29, 2011. If the debt ceiling currently being debated in Congress does not rise, the government would need to choose what to pay and what not, including benefits like Social Security. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

A class of administrative law judges hired to help reduce case backlogs at the Social Security Administration is unfairly being denied collective bargaining rights enjoyed by their colleagues at the agency, according to a union seeking to represent them.

July 26, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC – The executive officers of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) and the president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges-IFPTE Judicial Council 1 (AALJ) express their strong support for the nomination of former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to lead the Social Security Administration (SSA). By calling on Gov. O’Malley to serve in this important position, President Biden has once again delivered on his commitment to working families and our retirees.

By Lisa Rein

May 25, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Hurled from a road-paving machine, Michael Sheldon tumbled 50 feet down a Colorado slope and struck a mound of boulders headfirst on a summer day in 2006. After eight surgeries to his head, neck and spinal cord, his debilitating headaches, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress have made it impossible to return to his work preparing roads for new subdivisions.

Yet for more than a decade, the Social Security Administration repeatedly denied Sheldon’s full claim for disability benefits that would pay him $1,415 a month.

Even after three federal judges found significant errors with how his case was handled and sent it back to Social Security for new hearings, the agency continued to reject Sheldon, court documents show.

News/Events

Union calls out Social Security Admin. on bargaining status of judges - Federal Times: August 8, 2023

IFPTE Enthusiastically Endorses Martin O’Malley for Commissioner of Social Security Administration July 26, 2023

Judges rebuke Social Security for errors as disability denials stack up - May 25, 2023