January 31, 2003
GILES FILES
By
Duncan Giles
President
NTEU Chapter 49
On this and that…
It’s been an interesting start to 2003.
We’ve had some goings on at the Call Site with parking, lunch hours and meeting
time. For more details on those issues, see the link at our chapter
Web site—www.nteu49.org.
We had an 11th hour settlement on SB/SE support for the Taxpayer Assistance
Centers (TACs, formerly known as walk-in offices) that was very close to
reaching an umpire for resolution. Visit our Web site for Karen McKibben’s
article on this.
The MITS reorganization is still going forward. Management even seems
to be getting better at fixing problems (albeit with a few glaring exceptions
we are still working on locally).
GSA finally awarded South Bend a new site that they should move into by mid
to late summer. This will be a vast improvement over the current site.
NTEU and the employees in South Bend will have considerable input into the
floor plans so we can try and make all the employees there feel as good about
their digs as possible.
As you can see, it’s been a busy start to 2003 and promises to stay that
way. But rest assured that NTEU Chapter 49 will stay on top of all
issues so we can continue to give the employees in Indiana the best working
conditions possible.
That’s it for now.
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4.1% 2003 PAY RAISE
CLEARS A MAJOR HURDLE
A 4.1% average pay hike in 2003 for federal civilian workers came one step
closer in a Senate vote January 23rd, but still is not assured by any means.
The Senate approved a budget bill to fund most of the federal government
which includes an average 4.1% civilian pay raise for 2003. The House
must still act on this bill, then a House-Senate conference committee will
be convened to iron out any differences in the two versions of the budget.
President Bush issued an executive order late last year setting a 3.1% across-the-board
pay raise in 2003 for the civilian work force in the federal government.
That raise will be reflected for IRS workers in the pay check received in
early February. If Congress does end up enacting the higher raise amount,
federal employees will get some retroactive pay in 2003. Remember that
the 4.1% (if passed by Congress) is 3.1% across-the-board and 1% locality
pay, which varies by location. For example, if the average 4.1% pay
hike becomes law, Indianapolis and most of the rest of Indiana would receive
a 4.03% raise, while those in the Merrillville office would get a 4.51% raise
(tied to the Chicago locality).
Meanwhile, as the 2003 raise is still in limbo, the battle is beginning over
the 2004 federal pay raise. The White House is proposing a 2% pay raise
for everyone, but wants a $500 million fund for what are described as “performance
based” raises. NTEU doesn’t oppose performance-based raises as long
as they’re not funded through lower raises for everyone. We have problems
with the administration’s plan.
We’ll explain why in future newsletters.
We'll keep you posted on developments on the 2003 and 2004 pay issues.
TCOs, TRRs & TSs:
IMPORTANT NEWS ON
GRADE 11 POSITIONS!
IRS management is circulating a memo placing a moratorium on Grade 11 positions
in the GS-526 personnel series. Included in that series are Tax Resolution
Representatives (TRRs), Tax Compliance Officers (TCOs) and Tax Specialists
(TSs). The management memo blames a grievance filed by NTEU over accounting
requirements for those positions as the reason for not providing these grade
11 opportunities to people currently at grade 9 in those jobs. NTEU's
response is simple and direct - such claims by management are hogwash!
The memo is vague about this, but NTEU believes IRS is taking the position
that the agency cannot justify the Grade 11 positions without the educational
requirements NTEU is challenging in the grievance. We at NTEU strongly
take issue with management's view on this. The complexity of the work,
not education, determines the grade of any job in the federal government.
Grade 9s in these jobs are usually doing the most complex work in that personnel
series. No manager we are aware of is putting work aside waiting for
someone to achieve the 12 hours of accounting before assigning the work.
So far, IRS has been unwilling to provide a Grade 11 position description
because management is probably already aware of the fact that Grade 9s in
this series are already doing Grade 11 work.
Now it appears that IRS management is attempting to blame NTEU's grievance
over these accounting educational requirements for blocking promotional opportunities.
If anyone in management tries to make that argument, we suggest you ask the
following questions.....
Where is the position description showing the difference between the Grade
9 and Grade 11 work so you (the employees) can see for yourselves what Grade
11 work you can and cannot do without 12 hours of core accounting credits?
Where in the federal regulations is there authority suggesting that the grade
of your job is dependent on education?
What Grade 11 work is not being done or being held back now because employees
are unable to do it without the extra educational requirements management
has prescribed?
Why has the agency not required all the managers in the GS-526 personnel
series to get this education or take a demotion?
NTEU has filed grievances over these employees' 12 hour accounting credit
requirement and the Revenue Agent 30 hour accounting requirement for two
important reasons...
1. NTEU does not believe these courses are required to do these jobs.
A number of employees and managers are doing this work quite capably without
this additional education. IRS has not produced one validation study
to justify this requirement.
2. NTEU is concerned about what IRS may propose next. No other
federal agency requires more than 24 hours of accounting to become an accountant.
No other agency requires 12 hours of accounting to merely qualify for a job
series outside the accounting personnel series. If IRS is able to require
30 hours of RAs, why not 36 hours or a CPA to be a Revenue Agent? If
IRS is allowed to require 12 hours of accounting to be a Grade 11 TCO, why
not 18 hours next year?
Let's be clear about one thing. NTEU does not in any way oppose qualification
standards for any job. But to sustain its position, IRS would have
to show that its accountants must have more training than those at the Defense
Audit Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission, Secret Service, ATF, Customs
or any federal agency involved in auditing and financial analysis.
To sum this up, IRS is trying to blame NTEU because management refuses to
move forward with the grievances the union has filed, and that is causing
these employees to lose money as long as these cases remain unresolved.
NTEU's decision to stay with these grievances is based on IRS' actions (and
inactions) and our concern about any future unilateral actions on the part
of IRS management.
If you have any questions or concerns about any of this, contact any Chapter
49 steward or officer.
CONTRACTING OUT TELEPHONE
TAX LAW WORK;
THE LATEST
IRS gave national NTEU officials a briefing on plans to test a private
vendor's ability to deliver telephone tax law work for the Service's toll-free
system.
The pre-feasiblility study on this began last September. In November,
IRS made the following determinations...
--The Joint Operations Center (JOC) in Atlanta has the technical capability
of interfacing with private vendors.
--Based upon a market survey, there are vendors with the capability that
have expressed an interest in performing the work of the IRS tax law operations.
--Any private vendors would not be liable for erroneous advice given to taxpayers
(that's based on an opinion from the IRS General Legal Counsel).
--Tax Law Telephone work consists of nearly 1,000 FTEs (full-time equivalent
positions).
The Service has determined that two additional issues must be addressed in
the pre-feasibility stage before a decision is made whether to advance to
the feasibility study stage of the competitive sourcing process. Here
are those two issues...
--Whether a vendor can provide tax law assistance at the same level of quality
that the IRS currently provides.
--What the taxpayers perception is to receiving tax law advice from a vendor
rather than an IRS employee.
In order to test those two issues, IRS has made a decision to conduct a vendor
capability test. A solicitation will be made to hire a vendor.
That vendor will participate in a two-month test to be conducted about a
year from now, during the 2004 tax filing season. About 326,000 calls
will be re-routed from the 800-829-1040 line by JOC to test the vendor.
IRS does not expect this test to have any impact on toll-free Accounts Management
staffing workload, since 326,000 calls would be fewer than the current abandoned
call rate (in other words, the vendor will be taking calls IRS wouldn't be
able to take anyway due to heavy volume). Here are the categories of
tax law issues the vendor will be handling during this test..
Filing and Dependents
Credits and Standard Deductions
Earned Income Credit
Interest and Dividends
Estimated Tax
Schedule D, Sale of Home
IRA
Pensions/SSA Benefits
W&I Advance Tax Law
Technical Tax Law Back Up
During the test period, the vendor will be subject to the same quality review
now conducted at IRS sites. That quality review process will help IRS
determine and compare the vendor's level of quality to the level of quality
provided by Service toll-free workers. The test will include a survey
to determine the taxpayer's perception of receiving help from a vendor rather
than an IRS employee.
This two-month test in 2004 is expected to cost the Service about $1.7 million.
Chapter 49 will continue to provide updates on this situation as soon as
information is available to us.
HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING YOU SEE IN THE NEWSLETTER?
HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT CHAPTER 49 AND WHAT WE ARE DOING FOR YOU?
CALL THE UNION OFFICE AT 317-226-6841.
OR E-MAIL US AT
nteu49@aol.com
Larry Lannan