Top Stories

Leave Donations Needed for Katrina Victims After Hurricane Katrina struck last year, federal employees came to the aid of their colleagues by donating leave to give them the time they needed for rebuilding. As the recovery continues, so does the need for more leave donations. Last week, the Office of Personnel Management issued an urgent call for additional donations after two federal agencies reported insufficient leave donations to meet the needs of approved recipients. The agencies requested approximately 18,000 additional hours of donated annual leave, and OPM is expecting more requests from other affected agencies. Donors may contribute one to 104 hours of annual leave. Agencies may waive the 104-hour limit if not enough leave is donated. Click here to download the forms to receive and donate leave.

NTEU Welcomes Smaller FEHBP Increase;
Questions Use of Cash Reserve
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) last week announced that federal health insurance premiums will increase next year by an average of 2.3 percent. NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley welcomed the news of a smaller premium increase than in previous years, but raised serious questions about OPM tapping into reserves to achieve the lower figure.

President Kelley raised her concerns in a letter to OPM Director Linda M. Springer and asked several questions including why are there additional reserves in the fund to cover 2007 and with the use of the reserves is there sufficient money in the funds? If the cash reserves of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) hadn’t been used, the likely premium increase for next year would have been seven percent.

“I want to make sure the integrity of FEHBP is maintained and the program remains strong,” Kelley said.

For the complete story, click here or visit <www.nteu.org
/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=963>.

NTEU Welcomes DHS Decision Not
To Appeal Personnel Regs Case
NTEU today welcomed the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision not to pursue a further appeal of the union's legal victory striking down personnel rules that strip employee collective bargaining rights. Yesterday was the deadline for DHS to seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court of a June 27 decision NTEU won before the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“DHS has made the right decision—for itself, for its employees and for our nation,” said President Kelley. “It is now time for DHS to put this adversarial proceeding behind it and to join with NTEU in focusing solely on the agency’s critical mission of protecting the American people.”

Federal courts ruled three times in NTEU’s favor that DHS efforts to gut employee collective bargaining, due process and appeal rights are illegal and cannot be implemented.

NTEU served as lead counsel for a coalition of other DHS unions, performing all the legal research, writing all the briefs and presenting all the oral arguments.

For the complete story and more on NTEU's legal battle against the DHS regulations, visit www.CBPunion.org.

NTEU White Paper Calls for More IRS Staffing to Close Tax Gap
In conjunction with today's Senate subcommittee hearing on the tax gap, NTEU released a white paper showing the critical role adequate staffing plays in reducing the multi-billion dollar gap between taxes owed and paid.

Using figures from the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) own annual reports and similar documents, NTEU made the case that the agency must actively seek additional personnel if it wants to address the tax gap in a meaningful way. Instead, the IRS workforce has been shrinking over the last decade, even in the face of millions more tax returns filed. Specifically, NTEU pointed to the sharp reduction in Revenue Officers and Revenue Agents, as well as IRS plans to cut by half its staff of Estate and Gift Tax Attorneys—all employees critical to closing the tax gap. The union also questioned the logic of the IRS's costly tax debt privatization program.

NTEU provided its white paper to every member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management and other Senate offices.

For the complete story, click here or visit <www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/
PressRelease.aspx?ID=967>.


NTEU Chapters Ready To Answer Employee Questions NPAA Awards
NTEU chapters now have data from the IRS and can answer employees' questions on this year's award payouts under the National Performance Awards Agreement (NPAA). Awards from the negotiated program totaling $50 million are scheduled to be paid to NTEU bargaining unit employees Thursday.

The data NTEU has made available to chapter leaders will enable them to answer questions including:

• Was the employee placed in the right awards pool?
• What is the share value of that pool?
• What appraisal score was entered into the employee’s calculation?
• Did the proper number of employees in the pool receive awards?

The awards information NTEU chapters have is not available to employees through their managers. As in past years, NTEU will work with employees who believe they were not treated fairly to file grievances for their proper payments. If you have questions or need additional information on the NPAA awards, visit your union office.


Senators Join NTEU in Opposing IRS Board Nominee
Nine members of the Senate Finance Committee have joined NTEU in expressing their strong opposition to the nomination of a senior Treasury Department official to represent IRS employees on the public-private IRS Oversight Board.

The senators on Thursday sent a letter to President Bush calling “unacceptable” his nomination of Donald V. Hammond, Deputy Undersecretary of the Treasury, as a member of the board and asking the president to reconsider. The Oversight Board plays an important role in reviewing IRS operations and policies and in making recommendations for improvements, including on the agency’s budget.

When the nomination was first announced in May, President Kelley came out with strong words about the president's choice, arguing that a high-ranking management official hardly qualifies as an employee representative. NTEU also pointed out that the nomination contradicts a law requiring that one member of the board be a full-time federal employee or employee representative. The senators agreed, writing that "one member should represent the views of the workers at the IRS since the views of management would be provided by the Commissioner of the IRS and the Secretary of the Treasury.”

For the complete story, click here or visit <www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/
PressRelease.aspx?ID=965>. To make your voice heard on the nomination, click here or visit <http://capwiz.com/nteu/issues/alert/?alertid=8727526&type=CO>.


Headlines

Union Hits Board For Upholding Firing
The Washington Times, September 24, 2006
The leader of the nation's largest independent union of federal workers says a decision by the Merit Systems Protection Board upholding the firing of U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers is "dangerous to the public safety" because it cut protections afforded to federal whistleblowers.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union said the board's 2-1 decision last week "serves the public poorly and undermines the congressional intent evident in the Whistleblower Protection Act, particularly with respect to matters impacting public health and safety."

The union filed a brief in support of Mrs. Chambers, who had asked the board to overturn her firing. Mrs. Chambers, who had served for six years as chief, was fired in July 2004 by the Interior Department after The Washington Post published an article in which she criticized inadequate funding and staffing levels for Park Police.

For the complete story, click here or visit <www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060923-114750-2571r.htm>.