AFGE Week in Review (Oct. 9, 2009)

Congress Repeals NSPS: In another major victory for AFGE, House and Senate conferees this week agreed to repeal the Pentagon's controversial National Security Personnel System and return all Defense employees to the General Schedule system. The decision, included in a committee report accompanying the 2010 Defense Authorization Act, grants DoD the ability to propose new personnel flexibilities that are subject to Congressional approval. AFGE applauded the move.

"After numerous Congressional hearings as well as analysis by the Department's own Defense Business Board task group, the evidence was all on the side of repeal," said AFGE President John Gage. "Congress had generously given the Department six years to develop a fair pay system, ample opportunity to correct its mistakes, and finally determined that the system could not be – and should not be -- saved."

AFGE Hails Nomination of Dan Gordon as Procurement Chief: AFGE praised the White House's nomination of Dan Gordon as the next administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. Gordon currently serves as the Government Accountability Office's acting chief counsel. He led GAO's procurement law division, which hears bid protests on government contracts, between 2000 and 2006. His nomination is expected to be confirmed by the Senate.  

"Although we will undoubtedly have our differences, AFGE believes he is a solid choice who if confirmed will promote oversight and transparency and strive to achieve a sourcing process that is more accountable to taxpayers and more fair to federal employees," AFGE President John Gage said. 

In previous administrations, some OFPP administrators acted as in-house advocates for contractors, allowing parochial interests to trump the public interest. Gage said Gordon's greatest challenge will be to restore credibility to an office that has been so greatly diminished by excessive 'collaboration' with an intensely self-interested industry that OFPP is ostensibly regulating.

D.C. Council Rejects Major Fenty's Pick for Parks Director: Following AFGE's testimony against the confirmation of Ximena Hartsock last week, the D.C. Council Oct. 6 voted 7 to 5 to reject Hartsock as the next director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreations. Ben Butler, president of AFGE Local 274, last week told the D.C. City Council that Hartsock was responsible for the elimination of the Office of Educational Services, which has provided child care services for working families since 1974. The D.C. government claimed the elimination of child care services is due to a $4 million deficit even though D.C. City Council's Budget Director Eric Goulet insisted that there were sufficient funds to finance these jobs. The resulting conclusion is that either the monies were depleted without explanation or Council approval or that the money is in fact available, but the administration has ulterior motives to privatize an award winning program.

Just Emailed the EEOC? Expect a Reply – in 6 Months: Despite a slight budget increase in 2009, the agency tasked with investigating discrimination charges in the workplace has not been able to provide better, faster service for the public due to chronic staffing shortages and misplaced priorities. According to Gabrielle Martin, president of AFGE's National Council of Equal Employment Opportunity Council Locals, the number of backlogged cases at the end of August rose to 85,805, which represents a 15 percent increase from August of 2008. EEOC continued to hire mostly in the fourth quarter when newly hired employees are unable to make contributions to backlog reductions. EEOC continued its refusal to hire adequate support staff and continued to leave cases in the pipeline to age. As a result, the age of the backlogged inventory continued to grow to 286 days (more than nine months), up 65 days from the end of August 2008. Workers who answer the phone continue to read scripts, over the protests of callers who ask for someone to talk to them. E-mails to the EEOC Web site wait six months before they can be answered.  

"Typically, the arrival of a new [fiscal] year brings hope and change. However, the EEOC's customer service results as of August 2009 demonstrate why the agency needs new permanent leadership and a new play book."

Gang Fight at W.Pa. Federal Prison Sparks Calls for Full Staffing, Funding: A recent outbreak of violence at the Federal Correctional Institution McKean in western Pennsylvania has reignited efforts to secure full funding and staffing at feral prisons across the country. According to union officials at the facility, a fight between two rival gangs quickly turned into a full-scale riot involving more than 250 inmates. At least six inmates were taken to hospitals with significant injuries. In recent months, AFGE's Council of Prison Locals has testified on Capitol Hill regarding the dangers of working in understaffed and underfunded federal prisons. The council has repeatedly asked for additional staff, stab-resistant vests, and the proper use of funds to ensure the safety and security of the nation's federal prison system. The council also has asked for a meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder to address the issues at the BOP, including a request to replace Director Harley Lappin.

"Management continues to turn a blind eye toward dangerous situations that put correctional officers, inmates, and the surrounding communities at risk," said Bryan Lowry, president of the council, which represents federal correctional officers at the Bureau of Prisons. "The days of 'doing more with less' must end. It's time to fix the BOP once and for all." 

AFGE: For-Profit Care Providers Undermines Veterans: AFGE last week told Congress that the Veterans Affairs Department's over-reliance on private for-profit health care providers is straining medical center budgets and jeopardizing veterans' health care. Even though the purpose of using private health care providers is to increase access for rural veterans and to address other gaps in care, but VA often fails to adequately consider the risks compared to other options, Mary Curtis, a psychiatric clinic nurse specialist and 1st vice-president of AFGE Local 1273 at the Boise VA Medical Center told the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Curtis said contract care requires that VA give up a certain degree of control to for-profit care providers. The use of these for-profit providers leaves VA less able to control costs, quality of care, provider qualifications, and medical privacy or to ensure that care is timely. In the long term, this may compromise VA's capacity to provide veterans with a full range of services, as well as its exemplary research and medical education programs. Congress clearly recognized these privatization risks when it enacted legislation that authorizes contract care in very limited circumstances when care is not available from VA. But hospital directors seeking short term fixes for patient wait lists and staff shortages often opt for costly contract care without adequately considering alternatives that would better serve the veteran and the VA health care system. As a result, in many cases, VA ends up spending more on for-profit contract care than it would cost to more fully staff the VA health care workforce.

TSA Prohibits Unauthorized Local Policies Following AFGE's Protest: Just three weeks after AFGE brought up workplace issues at the historic first-ever labor-management meeting with the new leadership of the Transportation Security Administration in July, the agency issued a new directive prohibiting unauthorized local personnel policies and requiring Federal Security Directors to submit future and current unapproved local directives to TSA headquarters for review. In the Aug. 13 memo to FSDs, Kair singled out the Attendance Control Procedures and the Attendance Control and Accountability Procedures that are being implemented at several airports and are tremendously demoralizing to the workforce. Under these programs, employees will receive a letter of counseling or a letter of reprimand if they take three unscheduled leaves within a period of time, usually three months, regardless of circumstances or approval from their immediate supervisors. There is no analysis of the particular circumstances that necessitated the unscheduled leave use. AFGE earlier this year wrote to the FSD at Dallas-Fort Worth and Acting Administrator Gale Rossides demanding a repeal of the policy after several employees had been disciplined under these absurd programs.

The new directive appears to mark a shift in how TSA handles another major leave issue: the Family and Medical Leave Act. Local management routinely denies intermittent FMLA leave requests and disciplines employees who exercise their rights under the law, which allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family and medical reasons. Kair pointed out in his memo that "management does not have the right to deny leave and order the employee to report to duty" and that if the employee's use of intermittent FMLA leave negatively affects his or her duties, management has to clear that with field counsel and the Office Human Capital before proceeding with any disciplinary actions. Kair also condemned the practice of issuing an absence without leave to employees who have called in sick but do not respond to management's subsequent phone calls.

Inside Government: The recent Office of Personnel Management announcement that premiums under the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) will increase in 2010 by an average of 8.8 percent was discussed last week on AFGE's radio show "Inside Government." AFGE Public Policy Director Jacque Simon analyzed the premium spike, which includes an increase for Blue Cross Blue Shield Standard Option participants by 15 percent for self coverage and 12 percent for family coverage – an increase that will affect 60 percent of all FEHBP enrollees.

Also appearing on the show was AFGE Census Local 2782 President Bill Schauman, who discussed the dangers U.S. Census Bureau workers face conducting door-to-door interviews throughout the United States. The 9th annual D.C. Labor FilmFest was also discussed on the show by Director Chris Garlock. The event is scheduled for Oct. 13 – 19 at the American Film Institute's Silver Theater and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Md. Garlock highlighted a number of films, including "Office Space," "Situations Vacant," and the Whistleblower Film Series. For more information, please visit www.dclabor.org.

Inside Government, hosted by AFGE Assistant General Counsel J. Ward Morrow, is a one-hour weekly nationwide radio/Internet program dedicated to issues that impact federal and D.C. government employees. The show airs each Friday at 10 a.m. on Federal News Radio 1500 AM in Washington, D.C. and online at www.federalnewsradio.com. Programs are archived on the Federal News Radio Web site and can be heard on demand at http://www.federalnewsradio.com or http://www.afge.org/insidegovernment. Please note there will be a short advertisement prior to the start of the program. The program also is available via iTunes podcast by clicking here. Users must install iTunes on their computers before accessing "Inside Government" via podcast. Listeners also can follow the program on Facebook ("AFGE Inside Government") and Twitter (afgeradioshow). For more information, please e-mail InsideGovernment@afge.org or go to www.federalnewsradio.com.