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Federal News & Commentary
DAILY NEWS BRIEF: Tuesday, February 1
House to vote today on extending pay freeze
The House is scheduled to vote today on H.R. 3835, the bill to extend the pay freeze for another year, for both federal employees and members of Congress. The House will vote on the bill using a suspension vote, requiring a two-thirds majority to pass. This vote has significant political implications for House Republicans, who want to see the pay freeze as well as other federal employee provision language from H.R. 3630 included as “pay fors” in the conference committee's final legislative package to extend the payroll tax holiday for a full year.
Read more at Federal News Radio
Minority Whip calls pay freeze plan unfair
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer(D-MD) on Tuesday argued the GOP’s plan to freeze federal pay is unjustified and won’t help the economy. Being a Maryland Democrat whose district is home to tens of thousands of federal employees, Hoyer feels the Republican proposal is designed only to score political points in an election year. He also claims that Republicans continue to avoid suggestions that the wealthiest in America pay their fair share and the proposal would disadvantage federal workers versus other works.
Read more at The Hill
Hearing scheduled to address annuity payment timeliness
The Senate subcommittee on Homeland Security and Government Management is holding a hearing this afternoon titled “Federal Retirement Processing: Ensuring Proper and Timely Payments.” The focus of the hearing is on the struggles the Office of Personnel Management faces in getting annuitants their payments on time. However, in light of last week’s hearing in the House and the recent release of the CBO study, the matter of retirement benefits in the federal sector versus the private sector is likely to be discussed.
Read more at Washington Post
Get more information at the committee website
NAGE Attends 50-Year Commemoration of Historic Kennedy Executive Order
NAGE National President David Holway and several NAGE staff members attended a special event January 17th marking the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s Executive Order granting federal workers collective bargaining rights. Executive Order 10988 gave federal employees the right to join, form, or assist labor organizations, and resulted from the findings of the Task Force on Employee-Management Relations in the Federal Service.
“It was very important to NAGE to join our union brothers and sisters in solidarity to honor this historic moment,” said National President Holway. “In the face of adversity, we must look back on the past for great strength and inspiration to help us continue to fight for a better quality of life for ourselves and our fellow workers.”
President Holway and NAGE staff were joined the AFL-CIO sponsored event by OPM Director John Berry, Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, and our brothers and sisters in labor to commemorate this historic event.
Read the full text of President Kennedy’s Executive Order 10988
Federal Labor-Management Council Holds First Meeting of New Year
The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations held its first meeting of 2012 on Wednesday (Jan. 18) at the Office of Personnel Management. President Obama appointed NAGE National President David J. Holway to the council in 2010.
Tim Curry, OPM Deputy Associate Director began the meeting with an update on the “Metrics Reports on Agency Forums.” Thirty of the 51 agencies have submitted metrics reports, which were due in December 2011. Eight agencies have requested additional time.
Council member William Dougan reported on the status of the (b)(1) pilots. Executive Order 13522 requires the establishment of pilot projects to evaluate the impact of bargaining over permissive subjects. The Council established a workgroup to draft a report to the President evaluating the results of the pilots and recommend appropriate next steps in accordance with Executive Order 13522. The final report to President Obama is due May 1, 2012.
The National Council has created a new performance management system—GEAR (Goals, Engagement, Accountability, Results)—intended to improve performance management. Six federal agencies and their labor counterparts have agreed to pilot the new system to determine how the program can be best implemented government wide. OPM Deputy Director Justin Johnson gave a report on the GEAR system and an update on how OPM is adopting the system. The other five participating agencies—Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Energy, Department of Labor, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Veterans Affairs—also reported on the GEAR pilot at their individual agencies.
The next Council meeting is scheduled for February 15, 2012 at OPM. Read the meeting notice
Review minutes of November 2011 Meeting
Web-Based Video and Interactive Training Available on Executive Order 13522
For all interested federal employees, free web-based video and interactive training is now available on Executive Order 13522. The training covers the development of metrics for labor-management forums as a part of implementing Executive Order 13522.
The Executive Order was signed by President Obama in December 2009 and calls for Federal agencies to work together with employees and unions to improve the delivery of high quality services to the American people. The order also created the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations; NAGE National President David J. Holway was appointed to the Council by President Obama.
You can view the training on YouTube, or participate in interactive training on OPM's HR University website. The interactive training is available to all Federal employees who have a government email address. Once a user sets up his/her HR University account at www.hru.gov, select "Course Catalogue" to locate the link to the "Executive Order 13522" Training.
The Hatch Act and Your Rights to (and Prohibitions from) Political Activity
With elections just around the corner, political campaigns are kicking into high gear and it's nearly impossible to go through a day without a friend or colleague engaging in discussions about candidates, caucuses, and party nominations.
As a federal employee, it's critical for you to be aware of and understand the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act of 1939 is a federal law that prohibits federal employees (except the President and the Vice President) in the executive branch of the federal government from engaging in certain partisan political activity. The Office of Special Counsel enforces the Hatch Act and can impose penalties of anywhere from a 30-day suspension without pay, to termination, for employees who violate the Hatch Act.
This Hatch Act "cheat sheet" gives you a quick summary of permitted and prohibited partisan political activity.
For a more thorough explantion, go to the GovExec.com website.
Take Advantage of Training
Opportunities! VA Announces Online Courses in Labor-Management
Relations
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced the launch of
important web-based curriculum on Executive Order 13522. The
"Introduction to Creating Labor-Management Forums: A Strategy for
Improving Labor-Management Relations and Productivity at VA" describes
how labor-management relations will be conducted at VA and defines
expectations for collaboration between the VA and its labor partners
under the new Executive Order 13522.
Courses are free and available to all NAGE VA members.
View the course list and information for accessing the courses online
