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Congress Prepares To Debate 2008 Pay Raise With Congress expected to debate the 2008 federal pay raise in the coming weeks, NTEU is renewing its push for a 3.5 percent increase. The White House proposed a 3 percent pay increase for the federal workforce in 2008. This inadequate proposal comes on the heels of last year’s 2.2 percent increase--the lowest raise for federal workers in nearly 20 years. Now is the time to take action as House and Senate Appropriations committees continue their hearings on fiscal 2008 agency budgets and debate how much of a raise military and civilian employees should receive next year. Ensure your lawmakers understand the importance of a fair pay raise by clicking here or visiting <http://capwiz.com/ nteu/issues/alert/?alertid =9646986&type=CO>.

NTEU Refutes IRS Claims on Staffing, Tax Gap
NTEU offered its own assessment for how to best close the $345 billion tax gap after the Treasury secretary and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner testified on the issue before the Senate Finance Committee.

Kelley challenged Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr.'s statement that the IRS is hiring as many Revenue Agents as it can and that IRS budget requests have not been met by Congress. Congress funded the IRS at $10.597 billion for FY 2007, more than the IRS requested and yet the agency will see declining enforcement personnel under this budget.

The NTEU leader also refuted the IRS assertion that it can only handle small staffing increases. "IRS has said that it must take one current staffer offline to train every three new staffers, which clearly is not necessary," noted Kelley, who once again called on the IRS to ask Congress for the budget and personnel to seriously reduce the tax gap. (More)

In other IRS news, Commissioner Mark Everson announced on Wednesday he is leaving the agency to head the American Red Cross.

"With the impending departure of Commissioner Everson, NTEU will continue to work with IRS leadership and Congress to address in meaningful ways a variety of issues impacting taxpayers and our nation," President Kelley said. At the top of NTEU's list are IRS staffing needs, budgeting issues, closing the tax gap and taxpayer protection.

Is Your Agency One of the Best Places to Work?
Ever wonder how your agency sizes up to others when it comes to employee satisfaction?

A biennial ranking of the best places to work in the federal government scored the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at the top of the list for overall employee engagement. NTEU represents employees at five of the top 10 agencies listed as the best places to work--the Securities Exchange Commission (3), Department of Justice (5), Social Security Administration (7) and Environmental Protection Agency (9). NTEU was invited to accept the award with an SEC representative in recognition of the role the union played in achieving the honor.

The survey of 221,000 employees, conducted by the non-profit Partnership for Public Service, also revealed that it pays to work at an NTEU-represented agency. Getting top honors in the area of pay and benefits was the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, while the SEC came in third.

One NTEU-represented agency that came nowhere near the top of the list was the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which received the lowest rankings in eight out of ten workplace categories. The dubious distinction came as no surprise to President Kelley. Hours before the rankings were released, Kelley testified at a House hearing on the morale crisis at DHS, while last week the House Homeland Security Committee issued its annual DHS report card giving the agency an 'F' in employee morale.

For more on DHS's ranking in the survey, click here or visit <www.cbpunion.org/Press
Release/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1084>.

NTEU Disappointed in Final OPM Comp Time Regulations
President Kelley expressed disappointment in final regulations issued last week that exclude an NTEU recommendation allowing federal employees traveling on federal holidays to earn compensatory time off.

"NTEU efforts led to establishment of this important program for federal employees, and I would have hoped that the Office of Personnel Management, in its rulemaking, would apply it in the broadest possible context, consistent with Congress’s intent," said Kelley.

One NTEU recommendation that OPM did incorporate in the new rules is that employees be paid for their full waiting time at airports, regardless of how they choose to spend the time. OPM agreed that excluding “meal periods” while employees waited made no sense and “agencies should not try to make distinctions in the employee’s activities during waiting time."

NTEU will be working with agency management to ensure that the new rules are properly implemented and employees are not required to travel on holidays for their jobs.

NTEU Files Third Grievance Against FDIC Pay-for-Performance Increases
NTEU last week filed a grievance alleging discrimination in the FDIC's 2007 pay-for-performance (PFP) program based on age, race, gender and grade level. The grievance asserts that the FDIC's distribution of increases was skewed against African-Americans, women, employees over 40 years old and those in Grades 12 and below.

This is another in a series of grievances NTEU has filed citing similar discrimination in FDIC’s pay increases. A grievance against the 2005 Corporate Success Awards (CSA) program is currently before an arbitrator, while the second grievance on the 2006 PFP increases is on hold pending the CSA decision.

NTEU sought to change the CSA program during negotiations for a new compensation agreement by pushing to have pay increases tied directly to evaluation scores using the job-based Performance Management Program (PMP) criteria. Although management refused to rely solely on PMP scores, FDIC did agree to include them as part of the PFP evaluation. NTEU had hoped this would combat some of problems, but as the 2006 and 2007 distributions indicate, management persists in using subjective, ill-defined factors when distributing its raises. Based on recent meetings between President Kelley and FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, NTEU is hopeful that the parties can soon begin discussions on improving the system to make it fair, transparent and credible.


NTEU Chapter 14 Makes a Statement on Tax Day
If the IRS isn't going to be up front with taxpayers, then NTEU will.

St. Louis-area taxpayers making last-minute dashes to the post office to meet Tuesday's filing deadline were met by NTEU members handing out educational fliers on the tax debt privatization program. By the end of the evening, members of NTEU IRS Chapter 14 (IRS St. Louis) had distributed more than 1,500 fliers outside the main post office in downtown St. Louis.

The fliers detailed why taxpayers should be concerned about the outsourcing initiative and included contact information of Illinois and Missouri representatives so that taxpayers can voice their opposition to the program.

"We thought this was a very important project to be involved in because the American public should be advised that their private and personal information is being distributed without their approval to private debt collection companies," said Chapter 14 Acting President Pamela Sturm. "We also made sure we advised them of the tactics of these companies." Private debt collection companies annually lead the Federal Trade Commission's list of the most complained about industries in America.

Chapter 14's campaign, titled "Wake Up, You Could Be The Victim of Identity Theft Courtesy of Your Federal Government," not only tackled the tax debt privatization initiative, but also the outsourcing of the IRS's data entry program.

The chapter is planning another informational hand-out at Busch Stadium, where last September volunteers passed out 10,000 fliers at a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game.

Headlines

DHS Pay Plan: Deal or No Deal
Federal Computer Week, April 23, 2007
The House Homeland Security Committee has approved a measure that would throw out the Homeland Security Department’s fledgling pay system in what could be the first shot across the bow from the Democratic-controlled Congress to reverse pending changes in how federal employees are paid.

An amendment to DHS’ fiscal 2008 authorization bill, proposed by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), would repeal authorization for the personnel system created under the 2002 Homeland Security Act. That overall legislation, which the committee approved March 28, could provide a blueprint for further action by congressional appropriators.

In offering the amendment, Lee described the new DHS personnel system and its implementing legislation as “a litany of failure” that guts employee due-process rights and jeopardizes the agency’s ability to retain a workforce capable of accomplishing its mission.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said the legislation would put “the nail in the coffin of a personnel system that would bring serious harm to DHS employees.” NTEU helped draft the language in Lee’s amendment, union officials said.

For the complete story, click here or visit <www.fcw.com/article102503-04-23-07-Print>.


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NTEU puts out an average of four press releases each week on the gamut of federal employee issues, including pay, benefits and workplace rights. It is this commitment to ensuring federal employees have a strong voice in the media that has seen NTEU quoted and cited by hundreds of newspapers, magazines and web sites, as well as television and radio stations each year.

To get your fill of NTEU news in between e-Bulletins, and for a searchable archive of press releases dating back to 1998, visit www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease.