AFGE 4th District Staff Attorney, Hampton Stennis, AFGE 4th District National Representative, John Swann, AFGE Local 1923 Vice President, Edward Gough and AFGE Local 1923 Chief Steward, Clyde Carr were successful in a recent arbitration involving food service employees at the United States Naval Academy.

 

According to the union, the Agency violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement by failing to pay current and past bargaining unit wage grade employees who are assigned to perform work in cold storage facilities where the temperatures are at or below freezing (32 F) environmental differential rate equal to four percent of the basic hourly rate paid to a Wage Grade 10, Step 2.  The union also states that the Agency did not provide adequate protective clothing required to work under these adverse conditions.

 

After listening to testimonies from union officials and employees of the food service division, the arbitrator in this case agreed that the Agency did violate Article 16 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and ordered the Agency to either pay the Environmental Differential Pay rate to all employees assigned to perform work in its cold storage facilities or provide appropriate protective gear, including hats, gloves, coat jacket and or suits. The Agency is also ordered to pay the affected employees back pay and interest. In addition, the Agency must also pay attorney fees.

AFGE 4th District Staff Attorney, Hampton Stennis, AFGE 4th District National Representative, John Swann, AFGE Local 1923 Vice President, Edward Gough and AFGE Local 1923 Chief Steward, Clyde Carr were successful in a recent arbitration involving food service employees at the United States Naval Academy.

 

According to the union, the Agency violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement by failing to pay current and past bargaining unit wage grade employees who are assigned to perform work in cold storage facilities where the temperatures are at or below freezing (32 F) environmental differential rate equal to four percent of the basic hourly rate paid to a Wage Grade 10, Step 2.  The union also states that the Agency did not provide adequate protective clothing required to work under these adverse conditions.

 

After listening to testimonies from union officials and employees of the food service division, the arbitrator in this case agreed that the Agency did violate Article 16 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and ordered the Agency to either pay the Environmental Differential Pay rate to all employees assigned to perform work in its cold storage facilities or provide appropriate protective gear, including hats, gloves, coat jacket and or suits. The Agency is also ordered to pay the affected employees back pay and interest. In addition, the Agency must also pay attorney fees.

 

A grievance was filed when the administration denied administrative leave for a delayed base opening due to a snow storm over the preceding weekend.  The Center granted administrative leave to employees for the number of hours up to 11 a.m., based on their regularly scheduled arrival time. However, the Center denied administrative leave to employees that did not report to work for that day, or did not report right at 11 a.m., even if the employee a) did not pre-schedule leave and b) would have reported to work that morning, but for the weather/base closure.

 

According to the contract, “When hazardous weather conditions develop during non-duty hours making it necessary to suspend operations or delay the opening of the Center, administrative leave (up to the hours specified) will be granted to all non-emergency employees who, but for the weather conditions, would have otherwise reported for duty.”

 

The contract provides for administrative leave for the specific period of the beginning of an employee’s shift until the time the base becomes open. The contract DOES NOT state administrative leave will only be granted to employees who report to work when there is a delayed opening.

 

The arbitrator assigned to this case agreed with the union’s position and ruled in the employee’s favor. The arbitrator has ordered the agency to credit the employee’s leave in the amount that was denied. The agency must also pay attorney fees.

 

Going forward, non-emergency unit employees will no longer need to report to work in adverse weather as a condition for receiving administrative leave. Most importantly, no employee will be required to risk his or her personal safety just to preserve a leave balance.

A grievance was filed when the administration denied administrative leave for a delayed base opening due to a snow storm over the preceding weekend.  The Center granted administrative leave to employees for the number of hours up to 11 a.m., based on their regularly scheduled arrival time. However, the Center denied administrative leave to employees that did not report to work for that day, or did not report right at 11 a.m., even if the employee a) did not pre-schedule leave and b) would have reported to work that morning, but for the weather/base closure.

 

According to the contract, “When hazardous weather conditions develop during non-duty hours making it necessary to suspend operations or delay the opening of the Center, administrative leave (up to the hours specified) will be granted to all non-emergency employees who, but for the weather conditions, would have otherwise reported for duty.”

 

The contract provides for administrative leave for the specific period of the beginning of an employee’s shift until the time the base becomes open. The contract DOES NOT state administrative leave will only be granted to employees who report to work when there is a delayed opening.

 

The arbitrator assigned to this case agreed with the union’s position and ruled in the employee’s favor. The arbitrator has ordered the agency to credit the employee’s leave in the amount that was denied. The agency must also pay attorney fees.

 

Going forward, non-emergency unit employees will no longer need to report to work in adverse weather as a condition for receiving administrative leave. Most importantly, no employee will be required to risk his or her personal safety just to preserve a leave balance.

 

AFGE Local 1923 Attorney, James W. Richard II was successful in a recent arbitration involving a Social Security Claims Representative.

 

After 32 years of service, the Agency issued a 45 day suspension for four alleged acts of inappropriate behavior pertaining to customer service type infractions. 

 

The Union contends the Agency had not satisfied the Supreme Court’s standard for “just cause” involving suspensions of more than 14 days. In addition, the Attorney Richard stated the Agency’s 45 day suspension is not consistent with similar employee punishment customer service infractions. 

 

The arbitrator in this case agreed, stating the complaint was “particularly disturbing” due to the fact that the supervisor “admonished the grievant in front of the client and the grievant successfully took immediate corrective action.” The arbitrator expressed additional concerns as to whether the “Agency purposely was building an effort to constructively discharge the grievant.”

 

Based on these findings, the arbitrator reversed the 45 day suspension and ordered the grievant be made whole which includes back pay and interest. The Agency must also pay attorney fees.

 

The White House will propose a 0.5 percent pay increase for civilian federal employees as part of its 2013 budget proposal, according to two senior administration officials familiar with the plans.The modest across-the-board pay jump would be the first increase for federal workers since before a two-year freeze began in late 2010. Raises for within-grade step increases and promotions have continued during the freeze.

The proposal, which requires congressional approval, differs from Republican plans supported by lawmakers and presidential candidates that would freeze basic pay rates for one more year. Some of those plans also call for denying within-grade raises. In recent weeks, GOP lawmakers have called for extending the pay freeze as a way to pay for a payroll tax extension.

But, “a permanent pay freeze is not an acceptable policy,” one of the senior administration officials said Friday. “While modest, a 0.5 percent increase reflects the belt-tightening we must do in these difficult times.”

The officials were unauthorized to speak publicly on the matter, but said that the White House notified agency budget offices about the decision Friday morning so that agencies could complete their 2013 budget requests.

The White House is expected to formally unveil its fiscal 2013 budget proposal in early February. No decision has been made yet on a potential pay raise for uniformed military personnel, the officials said, though lawmakers and federal worker unions traditionally push to ensure pay parity between civilian and military personnel. Pay parity was the standard practice for many years before 2009.

The proposal would save about $28 billion over the next decade and $2 billion in fiscal 2013 under the caps authorized by the budget control measures passed last summer, the officials said.

But the pay bump is well below the 3.6 percent cost of living adjustment that went into effect this week for Social Security recipients and most federal retirees to keep pace with inflation. It is also far below private sector earnings, which climbed roughly 2 percent in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Federal worker union leaders voiced tepid support Friday.

William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, called the move “a breath of fresh air for all those who serve their country every day.”

But John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the nation’s largest federal union, said the move “doesn’t make me yell and cheer.”

“Clearly I don’t think it comes close to paying federal employees what they’re worth, but at the same time, it also breaks this terrible pay freeze that has been put on us,” Gage said. “And hopefully it will carry through, and we will avoid any pay freezes that might come from the payroll tax deduction negotiations.”

Gage said “a real threat” remains that Republicans will successfully enact a pay freeze as part of the payroll tax negotiations. AFGE and other unions believe Republicans should focus on raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans instead of federal employees, the vast majority of whom are middle-class wage earners.

Lawmakers who track federal personnel issues were not immediately available for comment.

The federal government employs roughly 2 million civilian federal employees, with about 85 percent living and working outside the Washington area. The federal sector added about 2,000 new jobs in December, according to employment statistics released Friday.

By Jolie Lee
@jleewfed
Federal News Radio

The House is scheduled to vote today on how it will proceed with a Senate-passed bill to extend the payroll tax cutexpiring at the end of this year.

If Congress does not pass the tax cut extension, the payroll tax would rise 2 percentage points on Jan. 1.

With the Senate adjourned for the holidays, House Republicans are moving to shelve a bipartisan two-month extension of the payroll tax cut that cleared the Senate over the weekend and are demanding instead that their fellow lawmakers return to the Capitol for negotiations.

Republicans said they would move Tuesday to set up an official House-Senate negotiating panel known as a conference committee.

Provisions impacting feds in House bill passed last week: Extends the current two-year federal pay freeze another year, through 2013.  Beginning in January 2013, increases pension contributions by 0.5 percent annually, until it reaches 2.3 percent in 2015.  For federal employees with less than five years of federal service, increases pension contributions by 3.2 percent.  For new hires, changes the salary calculation for annuities to the highest five years of service, rather than the current highest three years of service.

The Senate bill, passed over the weekend by a vote of 89-10, extends the tax cut for two months without impacting federal workers’ pay and benefits. Instead, the bill pays for the tax cut by increasing fees charged by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration by one-tenth of 1 percentage point.

However, the year-long House version of the payroll tax cut bill— passed last week includes the fee increases, as well as provisions that would impact federal employees’ pay and benefits.

Among those previsions, the House bill calls for eliminating the annuity supplement paid in addition to the monthly Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) benefits, starting January 2013.

The supplement “represents what you would receive for your FERS civilian service from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and is calculated as if you were eligible to receive SSA benefits on the day you retired,” according to the Office of Personnel Management website.

“From everything I know, the House is hoping that they’ll vote on a bill that puts some of these provisions back in, that could include this annuity supplement as well,” said Julie Tagen, legislative director of NARFE, in an interviewwith Federal News Radio.

The Associated Press, and Federal News Radio’s Jack Moore and Michael O’Connell contributed to this story.

By Jolie Lee
@jleewfed
Federal News Radio

Federal employees were safe from another year of a pay freeze and changes to their annuity formula in the two-month payroll tax cut bill passed by the Senate this weekend. But now House Republican leaders are shunning the bipartisan bill, wanting to write their own version.

Without congressional action, the payroll tax would rise 2 percentage points on Jan. 1.

The House scheduled a vote late Monday. It’s unclear whether or not a House version of the bill would include any changes to federal pay and benefits.

Last week, the House passed a payroll tax cut extension that extended the federal pay freeze for one more year and changed the federal annuity from a high-three to a high-five formula. The House bill also increased federal employees’ pension contributions by 0.5 percent annually, until it reaches 2.3 percent in 2015. The Senate rejected the bill.

The bill passed this weekend by the Senate extends the tax cut for two months by increasing fees charged by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration by one-tenth of 1 percentage point.

But House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Sunday’s Meet the Press that two months is “just kicking the can down the road.” Boehner did not specify the changes he would like in the bill, but touted “reasonable reductions in spending.”

The Senate bill also includes a provision dear to Republicans that would force President Obama to approve a proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline within 60 days unless he declares the project would damage the national interest.

The President had previously said he would make no decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until 2013, allowing him to wait until after next November’s elections to choose between two Democratic constituencies: unions favoring the project’s thousands of jobs and environmentalists opposed to its potential pollution and massive energy use. Obama initially threatened to kill the payroll tax bill if it included the pipeline language but eventually retreated.

One potential hindrance to quick approval of a new payroll tax bill is the Senate’s adjournment. It would take approval from all 100 senators to let the Senate hold any votes before the chamber’s late January return.