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Senators Call on Colleagues to Help Stop IRS Outsourcing Measure The two senior senators who last week introduced legislation that would derail the IRS tax collection outsourcing program have sent a letter to their colleagues asking them to cosponsor the bill. "We believe that the IRS's debt collection outsourcing plan is fatally flawed," wrote Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in a letter sent Friday. "Prompt passage of S. 3887 in the Senate will help assure that we stop this misguided plan." To learn how you can help, click here or visit <http:// capwiz.com/nteu/ issues/alert/?alertid= 9009491&type=CO>.

NTEU: Report Shows Need to
Properly Fund IRS Customer Service
NTEU pointed to an August government report as underscoring the importance of adequately funding IRS customer service—and the consequences of failing to do so on taxpayer compliance.

According to an audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), a significant number of tax returns prepared this year by volunteers contained critical errors.

The IRS has taken steps to cut customer service operations, encouraging taxpayers to instead use volunteer centers such as those in TIGTA's report. But according to NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley, “this is another area of work that is best done by trained and accountable IRS employees."

Just last year, NTEU played an instrumental role in stopping the IRS from closing 68 of its Taxpayer Assistance Centers. NTEU continues to press for appropriate IRS funding in its fight against outsourcing tax debt collection, work the IRS admits can be done for less cost in-house, but the agency claims it lacks adequate staffing. For the complete story, click here or visit <www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/
PressRelease.aspx?ID=959>.


NTEU Secures New Positions for ACF
Employees Following A-76 Decisions
NTEU has secured an agreement ensuring that employees of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) impacted by A-76 decisions will have the option to be reassigned to other positions without taking pay cuts or choose voluntary early retirement. Under the agreement, impacted employees will be provided significant resources—including access to various career assistance programs and the use of computers, copiers and other equipment—to assist them in securing new positions. In addition, ACF has agreed to create 10 new Career Opportunity Training Agreements (COTA) positions, which give employees training and a track to new, higher-paid positions at ACF headquarters in Washington, D.C. This is particularly welcome news since ACF has hired only six new employees since 2002.

To help guide employees through the process, NTEU and ACF are holding a series of lunch and learns on a variety of topics including training and retirement options.


NTEU Wins Rare Challenge to Contracting Out Decision
NTEU has won what is perhaps the first-ever monetary settlement to resolve a lawsuit challenging an agency's contracting out decision. The case involves the direct conversion of IRS mailroom jobs, some of which were held by disabled employees. In a direct conversion, federal employees are not allowed to compete with the private sector to keep their jobs.

In February, NTEU successfully argued before a federal district court that the IRS's action was illegal in light of legislation passed for fiscal year 2004 prohibiting federal agencies from using appropriated funds on direct conversions. NTEU's legal victory is particularly significant because the A-76 laws afford great discretion to agencies, making contracting out lawsuits difficult for unions to win and defend on appeal.

The settlement provides $4,100 payments for each of 10 former mailroom employees who were involuntarily separated on Dec. 10, 2004, to complete the direct conversion of the mailroom function to private sector performance. Initially, 70 employees were impacted by the direct conversion, but NTEU secured favorable arrangements such as buyouts, early retirements and reassignments for many of them.

NTEU continues to fight for more level contracting out laws, most recently helping to secure language in the Senate Appropriations Committee's mark-up of the fiscal 2007 Transportation-Treasury Appropriations bill that would make public-private job competitions more fair.

For the complete story, click here or visit <www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease
/PressRelease.aspx?ID=961>.


IRS Employees Set to Receive NPAA Payments Next Week
NTEU has received notice that IRS employees will receive payments under the negotiated National Performance Awards Agreement (NPAA) next Thursday, Sept. 28. This year, approximately 48,000 NTEU bargaining unit employees will share in awards totaling $50 million.

For decades, management alone decided who would receive awards and how much each employee would get. There was no direct linkage to an employee’s annual appraisal nor was there any other system to force objectivity, fairness and equal treatment. When NTEU first negotiated the contract’s mandatory performance awards program in 1994, managers lost most of their discretion, awards were linked to appraisals, objectivity grew and equal treatment was finally enforceable through grievances.

Since then, NTEU has closely monitored payments through national statistical analyses to ensure that employees receive the money owed to them. NTEU has regularly filed grievances that have resulted in millions for employees who received less than they were entitled to, and in some cases no awards. This year, NTEU will again go to arbitration over the 2005 awards decisions, work with local NTEU chapters to find errors and take any action necessary to ensure that high performers receive the recognition they deserve.


Headlines

Kelley Urges DOE to Rethink Plan
Federal Daily, September 15, 2006
The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to rethink its planned merger of the agency’s separate safety and health function with its security function under a DOE reorganization plan. “NTEU is concerned that these changes will have a direct and negative effect on the lives of many (DOE) employees and citizens across the country,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said on Sept 13. NTEU said the decision would result in a loss of safety and health accountability since the specific missions no longer would be carried out under the leadership of an assistant secretary.

For the complete story, click here or visit <www.federaldaily.com/federaldaily/archive/
2006/09/FD091506.htm#15a>.