September 28, 2006
Congress sets ’07 military pay raise at 2.2 percent; civilian raise likely to match
Source: Federal Times.com
Congress has set the Jan. 1 military pay raise at 2.2 percent. And that means it’s all but certain that federal civilian employees will get the same.
A 2.2 percent average increase would be the smallest raise for civilian employees since 1988 and the smallest military pay increase since 1994. While it would keep pace with inflation — which is projected to climb 2.2 percent in 2007 — it would do nothing to close the lingering gap between government and private-sector pay. Civilian employees on average are paid about 13 percent below private-sector workers, while the military pay gap is about 4.5 percent.
The 2.2 percent raise is what the Bush administration asked for in its budget blueprint in February, and in the end, Congress decided it could not afford to do more for service members.
The House earlier this year endorsed a 2.7 percent military raise proposed by the House Armed Services military personnel panel. But that proposal never had a chance of winning full congressional approval, according to sources involved in negotiations to write the final 2007 Defense budget.
While the full House and the Senate Appropriations Committee both back a 2.7 percent pay hike for civilian workers, it’s highly unlikely Congress would approve a higher raise for federal workers than for service members. The bill that contains the civilian pay raise — the Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development and Judiciary spending bill — has cleared the House but likely won’t be taken up by the full Senate until Congress returns for a lame-duck session following the November election.
September 27, 2006
Officials forgo Supreme Court appeal in DHS labor case
By Karen Rutzick
Source: GovExec.com
Government officials on Monday night passed up their last chance to seek reversal of a court decision blocking proposed labor relations reforms at the Homeland Security Department.
The solicitor general's office, which brings cases to the Supreme Court on behalf of government agencies, let a midnight deadline pass without filing an appeal at the high court.
"We're OK with that because it allows the department to move forward in implementing our labor relations flexibilities rather than spending additional time in the litigation process," said Larry Orluskie, a DHS spokesman.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35119&dcn=e_gvet
September 26, 2006
AFGE FILES BRIEF IN RESPONSE TO DOD APPEAL OF NSPS DECISION
Union, DoD Coalition Ask District Court to Affirm Earlier Court Ruling
WASHINGTON—The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), along with its Department of Defense (DoD) union coalition partners, today filed an opposition brief in response to DoD’s decision to appeal the court ruling that struck down significant provisions of its controversial National Security Personnel System (NSPS).
In February, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s ruling gutted several NSPS provisions pertaining to labor relations, collective bargaining, independent third party review and adverse actions. Consequently, Judge Sullivan’s decision on AFGE v. Rumsfeld—05-2183 (D.D.C. February 27, 2006)—effectively declared illegal major portions of NSPS.
In the brief, AFGE asks that the District Court affirm the February decision and to rely on the precedent set by the ruling of U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer that blocked implementation of similar proposals from the Department of Homeland Security. In that decision, the courts ruled that the proposed DHS MaxHR system failed to either ensure collective bargaining in labor relations or fair treatment for appeals. Today AFGE learned that DHS has decided not to appeal Judge Collyer’s decision to the Supreme Court.
“The District Court has made it clear that DoD overreached and outright defied the guidelines set by Congress when it designed NSPS,” said AFGE National President John Gage. “We are asking the District Court to dismiss the DoD appeal and once again affirm what we already know to be true: NSPS is unfair and will cause irreparable harm to DoD employees if allowed to move forward in its current form.”
AFGE has consistently maintained that NSPS and similar personnel rules stand to devastate the federal workforce by gutting worker pay, eliminating collective bargaining rights, rending whistleblower protections moot and wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.
AFGE jointly filed the brief with a coalition of unions representing civilian defense workers, the United DoD Workers Coalition. AFGE and UDWC started their fight to protect the rights and pay of civilian DoD employees by filing a lawsuit in February 2005 challenging the legality of the NSPS regulations.
“If judges have gutted similar personnel regulations from DHS,” said Gage, “what makes DoD think they can get away with going forward with these illegal NSPS rules? The regulations that DoD is trying to implement violate the law and DoD needs to accept that and start over.”
September 22, 2006
SUIT COULD DELAY NSPS BY ONE YEAR
Source: FedNews Online
The ongoing legal struggle over the labor relations component of the National Security Personnel System could delay the pay-for-performance system for the Department of Defense.
DoD Deputy Secretary Gordon England testified earlier this week before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs on the status of NSPS.
"If the decision is unfavorable, or delayed, the Department may come back to Congress next year to seek clarification, to allow full implementation of NSPS. For example, the Department might ask Congress to consider an extension of the time limit for the labor relations system -- to allow sufficient time to implement adjustments to the system consistent with any court decisions," said England.
Implemented in "Spirals", only 11,000 DoD civilian employees are currently covered by the System. DoD announced in July that NSPS Spiral 1.2 will bring an additional 66,500 employees into the system between October 2006 and January 2007.
NSPS is a performance-based human capital system that will eventually incorporate almost 700,000 DoD civilian employees' pay and classification, performance management, hiring, workforce shaping, disciplinary matters, appeals procedures and labor-management relations.
Only the performance management, compensation and classification, staffing and workforce shaping provisions of the human resources component were implemented on April 30 with Spiral 1.1. (See NSPS BEGINS SUNDAY at http://www.fednews-online.com/?publicationId=9139.)
The system's adverse actions, appeals and labor-management components, however, are mired in litigation between DoD and a coalition of unions and will not be implemented with either spiral. (See DOD LIKELY TO APPEAL NSPS DECISION at http://www.fednews-online.com/?publicationId=8934.)
Lieutenant General Terry L. Gabreski, Vice Commander of the Air Force Material Command and in charge of overseeing NSPS training and implementation within AFMC, testified about Spiral 1.1's progress.
"NSPS deployment has not been without its challenges. These challenges include the normal comparison of the NSPS system and the General Schedule system anticipated with any change of this magnitude...a situation magnified by the split deployment pending the outcome of the DoD appeal of the February 2006 court decision in AFGE v. Rumsfeld," said Gabreski.
Text of the testimonies can be found at http://hsgac.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.DetailHearingID=398.
More information about NSPS can be found at http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps/index.html#.
September 21, 2006
FEHBP PREMIUMS RISING, BARELY
Source: FedNews Online
The Office of Personnel Management recently announced FY 2007's Federal Employees Health Benefits Program premium increases, which are the lowest increases since 1997.
Premiums will increase by an average of 1.8 percent next year, but the majority of enrollees (63 percent) will not pay any more than they did in FY 2006.
"The low premium increase can be credited to OPM's continuing efforts to provide federal employees and retirees with choices for top-quality health care at the most affordable price," said OPM Director Linda Springer.
Premiums in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan will decline by up to $1.29 per bi-weekly pay period, or stay the same, depending on the enrollment option. Blue Cross and Blue Shield has more than 56 percent of FEHBP enrollments.
The FEHBP provides a range of quality health-care options, including cost-conscious consumer-driven plans linked to Health Savings Accounts (HSA), covering 8 million federal employees, retirees and their dependents.
The FEHBP will offer 284 plan choices in 2007, up from 279 in 2006; 29 HDHPs will be offered, an increase of two over 2006. Similarly, the number of Health Maintenance Organizations increases to 209, up from 205.
Feds will also have an opportunity to select dental and vision coverage next year. (See OPM SELCTS DENTAL, VISION PROGRAM VENDORS at http://www.fednews-online.com/?publicationId=9641.)
A single open season for the FEHB Program, FSAFEDS Program and Dental/Vision coverage will be held governmentwide from Nov. 13 through Dec. 11. During this period, individuals can review printed and online materials to compare the coverage and costs of each program, as well as enroll or make changes based on their personal needs. Current FSAFEDS enrollees must re-enroll for 2007 if they wish to continue coverage.
Additional information on FEDVIP benefits and costs, along with health plan brochures, will be available at agencies for review by employees; employees and retirees can view the information online at www.opm.gov/insure/health/index.asp. Information on FEDVIP can be obtained online at www.opm.gov/insure/dentalvision; information on FSAFEDS can be found at www.fsafeds.com.
September 19, 2006
Senior execs pan performance pay system
By Karen Rutzick
Source: GovExec.com
The fledgling system to pay federal executives based on quantifiable performance measures is a flop, according to most of the executives who responded to an unscientific survey released Monday.
Eighty-six percent of respondents said the 2-year-old pay-for-performance system in the Senior Executive Service had no impact on their job performance. Another 5 percent said the system actually had a negative effect on their performance. Less than 10 percent said the system made a positive difference.
The survey was created by the Senior Executives Association in partnership with Avue Technologies, and 846 members of the SES voluntarily completed it. Because it was not based on a random sample -- and so, for example, disgruntled employees may have been more inclined to fill it out -- the findings are not scientific.
September 18, 2006
BUSH NAMES NEW SSA CHIEF
Source: fednews-online.com
President George W. Bush last week announced his intention to nominate a new Social Security Administration commissioner, Michael J. Astrue.
Astrue has more than two decades of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in both public and private sectors. Astrue most recently served as chief executive officer of Transkaryotic Therapies.
Prior to working with Transkaryotic Therapies, he was president, secretary and general counsel for Biogen, Inc. He was also a partner at the law offices of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. Astrue has also held various roles at the Department of Health and Human Services, including stints as general counsel, counselor to the commissioner of Social Security and acting deputy assistant secretary for legislation. He also served as a presidential associate counsel, advising former presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Astrue earned his bachelor's degree from Yale University and his juris doctor from Harvard University.
September 15, 2006
DOD POSTS NSPS PERFORMANCE TOOL
Source: fednews-online
Department of Defense employees already in the National Security Personnel System now have an online tool to facilitate the System's performance management process.
According to the NSPS Web site, the Performance Appraisal Application provides an online venue for supervisors and employees to "discuss performance, document areas of growth and share ideas regarding job objectives and work plans."
Employees who have not yet converted to NSPS can not access the tool, but a demo is available on the Web site.
Implemented in "Spirals", only 11,000 DoD civilian employees are currently covered by the System. DoD announced in July that NSPS Spiral 1.2 will bring an additional 66,500 employees into the system between October 2006 and January 2007.
NSPS is a performance-based human capital system that will eventually incorporate almost 700,000 DoD civilian employees' pay and classification, performance management, hiring, workforce shaping, disciplinary matters, appeals procedures and labor-management relations.
Only the performance management, compensation and classification, staffing and workforce shaping provisions of the human resources component were implemented on April 30 with Spiral 1.1. (See NSPS BEGINS SUNDAY at http://www.fednews-online.com/?publicationId=9139.)
The system's adverse actions, appeals and labor-management components, however, are mired in litigation between DoD and a coalition of unions and will not be implemented with either spiral. (See DOD LIKELY TO APPEAL NSPS DECISION at http://www.fednews-online.com/?publicationId=8934.)
More information about NSPS can be found at http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps/index.html#.
September 14 2006
Social Security Lays Out the Funding Consequences
Source: The Washington Post
By Stephen Barr
The Social Security Administration would be forced to send employees home without pay and shut offices 10 days next year if Congress does not increase its funding in fiscal 2007, the agency has told Congress.
"Fewer resources mean fewer people to serve the public in all areas of SSA's operations," Jo Anne B. Barnhart , the Social Security commissioner, said in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Because these budget reductions will affect all employees, they will result in major service disruptions across all workloads."
If the agency resorts to furloughs, the Social Security network of 1,300 field offices would close, probably a day at a time over a five- to six-month period. On those days, the public would not be able to apply for Social Security numbers, replace Social Security cards, file for retirement or disability benefits or obtain decisions on pending disability claims and appeals.
In 2006, nearly 49 million Americans will receive approximately $539 billion in Social Security benefits.
"For an agency like ours, it is kind of a shock," said Richard Warsinskey , president of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations.
Warsinskey said he understands that companies lay off and furlough employees in bad economic times, "but this is a public service issue." He said, "We don't want to take a well-run agency and make it mediocre because we don't get enough money."
Mark Lassiter , the Social Security press officer, said no decisions on furloughs have been made. The House and Senate have not finished work on the agency's budget and Barnhart "remains hopeful that the president's budget request will be approved by Congress," he said.
The Senate bill would provide about $9 billion for the agency -- about $400 million less than the president's request and about $54 million less than what the agency received for this year's budget. The House proposal would leave Social Security about $200 million short of what the White House is seeking.
The agency's budget may not be resolved until after the November elections, congressional aides said. A spokeswoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee said House and Senate negotiators would review the agency's funding and staffing levels later this year. Many agencies are likely to face budget squeezes next year, in part because Congress faces tough decisions on financing the Iraq war and homeland security.
Social Security, headquartered in Baltimore, has about 65,000 employees, and officials estimate that more than 40 percent of its workforce will retire by 2014. It appears that not all departing employees will be replaced because of budget pressures. Only one employee is being hired for every three that depart, according to 2006 and 2007 budget plans.
Darryl Perkinson , president of the Federal Managers Association, said reduced appropriations for Social Security will probably worsen the backlog of cases in the agency's Office of Disability and Adjudication Review. The association estimates the backlog has grown to 730,000 cases with an average processing time of 481 days. The group is urging Congress to pass the president's budget request and support adequate staffing levels in the disability review office.
Witold Skwierczynski , president of the American Federation of Government Employees' national council for Social Security field operations, testified before Congress in May and warned that the nation's demographics and baby-boomer retirements would require increases in skilled field staff in coming years.
In her letter, Barnhart indicated that the Senate's proposal to provide $400 million less than in the president's budget would require a hiring freeze, overtime reductions and other overhead cuts in addition to a 10-day furlough of staff.
Warsinskey said the agency is scouring its budget for ways to save money. "SSA has never been faced with this before," he said, referring to the prospect of a furlough.
Electronic Health Records
The House federal workforce subcommittee approved a bill yesterday that would require insurance companies in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to make an electronic health record available to enrollees upon request.
The bill goes to the House Government Reform Committee for consideration. Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.), the subcommittee chairman and bill's sponsor, said electronic records will improve health-care delivery and help reduce medical errors. Companies would not be allowed to pass along costs of providing the records in premium increases, according to the bill.
September 7, 2006
Dental and Vision Preview
Information on the new federal dental and vision benefits has been slow in coming. But now that the Office of Personnel Management awarded contracts to a handful of insurance companies -- after yanking them once -- details are starting to trickle in.
Dental and vision insurance will be available starting Nov. 13, when open season begins for all federal insurance options and full details will be available. The benefits are not subsidized by the government, but OPM said it used the mass numbers of federal employees to negotiate lower rates for participants. And government employees can pay for the benefits using pretax dollars.
OPM asked companies to fulfill basic requirements to win the contract, but each company will differ in specific offerings. That means participants will have to do more homework this fall to choose the best plan. OPM is requiring each insurer to offer brochures in the same format for easy comparison during open season.
In the meantime, here's some information for a head start. Contracts have not been finalized, so some information could change by November.
All the plans offer three enrollment options: yourself, yourself plus one, or yourself plus family.
For dental coverage, the Government Employees Hospital Association will offer a standard and a high option plan. One will have a presumably higher premium and no co-pay, while the other will have a $10 co-pay for visits to the dentist. There will not be a waiting period, meaning the moment you sign up, you could use the benefit. The one exception -- and this holds true for all insurers Government Executive talked to -- is orthodontia. GEHA has a two-year waiting period before that benefit kicks in.
GHI, a New York area regional dental provider, will offer only one option. The deductible -- $50 for individuals and $150 for families -- will apply to bigger services like root canals and will not cover routine teeth cleanings, for example. GHI has a one-year waiting period for orthodontia.
United Concordia, which provides insurance for the Defense Department's massive TRICARE program, is offering one option as well. There will be a deductible, but the insurer declined to specify the amount. There will be a two-year orthodontia waiting period.
Aetna also will offer just one option, but there's a twist. Aetna, which provides general medical insurance under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, already offers some dental coverage in that plan. Supplemental dental coverage, if an employee signs up with Aetna or another company with similar offerings, will fit with that. There will be a 24-month orthodontia waiting period and no deductible.
CompBenefits, a regional carrier in 23 states, will offer one option for its dental coverage. There will be no deductible and generally, there will not be a waiting period, but participants will have to go to dentists in the network for coverage. CompBenefits said its focus will be on providing the most simple, easy-to-follow plan.
Two companies -- Triple-S, which offers dental insurance in Puerto Rico, and MetLife -- could not be reached by Wednesday.
As for vision benefits, a spokeswoman for Blue Cross Blue Shield said the insurer would not release any information prior to open season because the contract is not finalized.
But the other two companies -- Spectera Inc. and Vision Service Plan -- provided some details.
There will be an in-network as well as an out-of-network benefit for Spectera. The company will not have any deductibles, but will require co-payment. There will be exam, frame, lens and contact lens benefits. There won't be a waiting period for benefits.
VSP, which has about 23,000 doctors on its network, said it will require modest co-payments. The amounts have been determined, but the insurer declined to publicize them at this time. The benefit will cover exams as well as eyewear.
Most of these companies are launching Web sites to provide information on their new federal plans.
This document is located athttp://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0906/090706pb.htm
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September 6, 2006
Public sector unions gain ground in labor movement
As the influence of traditional blue-collar unions dwindles in the private sector, government unions are taking on a new prominence.
Union membership in the private sector reached a low of 7.8 percent in 2005, while 36.5 percent of government workers, including state and local in addition to federal, were unionized, according to a new report from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. The Washington state anti-union policy group released the report for Labor Day.
"The realization that this is where unions are going is just starting to dawn on people in the last couple of years," said Michael Reitz, one of the report's authors. "It won't be very long before a majority of union members nationwide are in government."
Many of the public sector union members belonged to local organizations, such as teachers' unions. Local governments, according to the report, have 41.9 percent union membership. But Evergreen's focus on increased government prominence in organized labor, and criticisms of it, extended to the federal sphere.
John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said his union -- the largest in the federal government -- gained 15,000 new members in the past couple of years. Gage attributed the increase to a greater emphasis on organizing and to government initiatives to scrap the traditional General Schedule pay and collective bargaining systems, which worry some employees.
Evergreen's report noted the breakup of the AFL-CIO last year as a sign of dwindling private sector labor influence. Gage, whose union is a member of AFL-CIO, said any union's success is a good thing for labor.
"When you're on the AFL, you try and look at all of labor and certainly we've been able to be somewhat of a steady influence in terms of membership anyway," Gage said. "The steelworkers, some of these great unions have really een hit."
Reitz said he is worried by that trend.
"In private industries...self interest of the union negotiating is counterbalanced by competition, by making sure they're recognizing the employers' bottom line," Reitz said.
"They don't want to bankrupt the employers or drive them into a different county...The same self interest does not exist in the public sector."
But Gage said his union, which does not bargain over pay or benefits, cares equally about the well-being of mployers -- in this case government agencies. Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, agreed.
"The authors of this report seem to think that growth of unions and union membership in the public sector is a detriment to taxpayers, but I disagree," Kelley said. "Unions are a positive force in government."
Some of Evergreen's recommendations are already in place for the federal sector. Most federal unions are not allowed to strike and are required to submit their financial records to the Labor Department. The others were to ban payroll deductions for union dues and to foster greater competition among unions.
September 1, 2006
Bush declines to offer alternative pay raise plan
President Bush let an Aug. 31 deadline pass without submitting an alternative across-the-board 2007 pay raise for white-collar federal employees, providing a de facto endorsement for a 1.7 percent raise.
A formula in the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act sets the across-the-board increase at 0.5 percentage points less than the annual change in the Employment Cost Index at the end of the preceding September. This year, that number amounts to 1.7 percent. It does not include additional locality pay, which is determined using a different formula.
The president proposed a 2.2 percent pay hike in his fiscal 2007 budget, including locality pay, though he did not determine how much of that would go toward the local pay hikes. The president has until Nov. 30 to submit a plan for locality increases.
