February 21, 2003

GILES FILES
By
Duncan Giles
President
NTEU Chapter 49

On this and that…

First, I just availed myself of an NTEU benefit. I switched my auto & home Insurance over to Liberty Mutual which gives a 10% discount to NTEU members. The amount I'm saving per year is almost the same as my yearly dues. Heck of a deal don't you think? If interested go to our Web site at www.nteu49.org and click on the Liberty Mutual link.
 
Speaking of getting your dues worth - it looks as though we are in good shape to get the extra 1% raise on our pay. This is due in large part to NTEU fighting to get Federal employees what they deserve. Think about that when you ask what has NTEU done for me lately.

In both SB/SE in the field and at the Call Site we've had some frontline managers doing some strange things. From telling employees to use Union bank time to check their inventories - to writing memos to an employee without checking with their boss or Labor Relations - to denying overtime to an employee because the manager didn't understand what they were doing and failed to get proper guidance. These are the types of things the Chapter deals with daily.

A perfect example is the managers who had a meeting and didn't invite NTEU properly to all that they should have. This very well could have constituted an Unfair Labor Practice but due to the fine diplomatic skills of Chapter 49 Steward Coordinator Larry Lannan a common sense solution was found that allowed all parties to get what they need without going the formal route. We always try to let management do the right thing first if they err before we go formal. Most of the time it works. If not we are always prepared to take whatever legal steps that are necessary to protect employees rights.

I will be in Merrillville on February 21st, at the Call site on February 28th and in Ft. Wayne in March to give members a chance to vent directly to me about what's on their minds.

Lastly I'm very happy to announce that I've turned over my Chief Steward's hat to long time Chapter 49 Steward Karen McKibben. This decision was made with much deliberation. Karen has grown into being ready for this with her work over the last year and a half so when you see Karen be sure offer her your congratulations.

That's it for now.
———————————————————————————————

4.1% PAY RAISE OFFICIALLY
PASSES THE CONGRESS

We have some very good news for you, but as it goes these days, there is some bad news to go with it. 

First, the good news.  Congress has finally passed the fiscal year 2003 budget (in case you had forgotten, and we can't blame you if you have, the 2003 fiscal year began on October 1, 2003).  Included in that budget is an average 4.1% pay raise.  We currently have a 3.1% raise in our checks, so once the president signs the budget bill into law, he will issue a new executive order with the revised pay scales.  In Indiana, most IRS employees are expected to see a 4.03% pay raise, since we usually don't get the full 1% locality pay (which is based on the cost of labor, not the cost of living).  However, those working out of the Merrillville office will see their raise tied to the Chicago area, and that region usually sees pays hikes exceeding the 1% of locality.  Once all the pay rates are announced and in place, at some point we will be receiving some back pay for the raise we didn't get due to the budget being enacted so late in the fiscal year.  We will keep you updated on this pay situation right here and at www.nteu49.org.

Keep in mind that the White House began this discussion of the fiscal year 2003 pay raise at the 2.6% level.  It took heavy lobbying, along with cards, letters and e-mails from people like you to achieve this higher pay raise.  Remember, members’ dues money goes to pay for the NTEU Legislative Department, which is one of the best (if not THE best in the business) headed up by the highly-respected Maureen Gilman.  Our Legislative Department is also hard at work in the halls of Congress fighting the administration's push to privatize as many IRS jobs as it can get away with.  To fight battles like that, we need your help.  If you're not a member, sign up today.  If you know someone at work who is not a member, urge that person to join NTEU.  We need everyone's help to fight the battles ahead over issues such as pay, outsourcing our jobs and the cost of health insurance.

Now, the bad budget news.  In order to enact the higher federal employee pay raise, Congress will force federal agencies to absorb the cost into their budgets with no additional funding to pay for the additional raise.  That really hurts an agency like IRS, whose payroll costs make up the lion's share of the Service’s spending plan for the year.  Look for tight budgets continuing the remainder of this fiscal year.  

 
CONTRACTING QUOTA PROVISION
REMOVED FROM BILL

NTEU fought hard, but lost.  But don't worry, we have not given up yet!  The congressional conferees working out the final 2003 federal budget failed to insert a provision that passed the House and came within one vote of passage in the Senate. The measure would have stopped arbitrary quotas from being used by the Bush Administration.  The White House has said it wants to use percentage quotas to hand out our jobs to private contractors.  We came close, but failed this time.  NTEU will not give up.  And we at Chapter 49 will keep you posted on this.


    2004 ADMINISTRATION BUDGET
IS DISAPPOINTING

President Bush has unveiled his fiscal year 2004 budget proposals, and the news is not good for federal employees in general and IRS employees in particular. 

The president's 2% pay raise for the civilian work force and 4.1% average wage hike for the military once again goes against 15 of the past 18 years of tradition tying federal civilian and military pay increases.  NTEU strongly supports the average 4.1% increase in armed forces pay, but we object to this administration's consistent policy of turning its back on the civilian workers who fight terrorism and play key roles in national security on a daily basis.

The White House budget plan also wants to assume every federal government job is commercial in nature, not inherently governmental.  The president wants federal agencies to prove that a given job is governmental, not commercial (totally reversing the current system).  NTEU National President Colleen Kelley points to the "woefully inadequate oversight of and accountability by government contractors now, and this approach will only take valuable time and effort away from the work of federal agencies on behalf of the American people."

Speaking of private contractors, they are still attempting to get their foot in the IRS collection door.  The IRS budget proposal calls for the use of private collection agencies to go after unpaid taxes.  Rather than give the IRS workers with the enforcement authority and accountability the proper resources to do their jobs, this administration chooses to call for the private sector to try and collect these taxes.

We will keep a close eye on these issues as Congress debates these Bush proposals.


 QUESTIONS ON AWARDS

Chapter 49 Vice President Susan Wright has been fielding questions lately about the IRS awards program that has created such a stir.  As you all may recall, IRS demanded that all local agreements (which had worked very well over time) be replaced by one national awards plan drawn-up by management.  Not wanting to lose the entire awards program, NTEU reluctantly agreed to the new national awards idea.  Management assured NTEU that the plan would be fine and would run smoothly.  Well, most of you know the rest of the story.  The new awards program was a disaster.  That led to NTEU filing a national grievance.  That national grievance has been held in abeyance while a joint union-management committee tries to fix the problems.  If they can't fix the problems, the grievance will move forward.  One question Susan has been asked deals with the possibility of additional award money for employees in settlement of the grievance.  It's way to early to tell, since we're trying to fix the glitches through a joint committee (at least for now).  But you can be sure that Chapter 49 will immediately inform our members if any additional money is on the way as a result of the grievance and/or joint committee work.

Another question deals with what happens to your reward if you retire?  Here's the management's response to a question similar to that posed by an employee...

Employees who separate before June 30, 2002 for any reason, including resignation, retirement, or transfer, to another Federal agency, are not eligible.

One more question Susan has received deals with late appraisals - what if your evaluation is submitted late?  Will that endanger your eligibility for an award?  The answer management gives is no, sort of...

The FY-2002 appraisal requirement is based on the SSN-determined appraisal period.   Extension of the appraisal period or late submission of a rating does not affect eligibility and will not result in reduction of qualifying employees' awards in any way. However, awards based on appraisals or other information submitted after the award processing deadline will be paid in FY-2003, after awards for appraisals that were submitted before the deadline.
     
NTEU locally and nationally are very concerned about the awards situation.  We just recently learned that a number of employees in Communications and Liaison were overpaid, and another group was underpaid in award money.  To management's credit, they are working diligently with us to rectify any problems in C&L, especially for those underpaid award money.  We'll continue to keep you informed when we know more.  And, keep the questions coming.          


ODDS AND ENDS

Chapter 49 stewards Cynthia Underwood and Michael Keethers have both reached settlements for NTEU members that total in the thousands of dollars.  Cynthia won her settlement over a higher graded duty issue.  Michael represented an employee incorrectly downgraded when coming to IRS from another government agency.  Congratulations to both Cynthia and Michael for a job well done!

February 28th is the deadline for electing participation in the IRS Leave Bank program.  The Leave Bank allows employees enrolled in the bank to use leave donated by other bank members during a medical emergency.  This is a valuable benefit for those joining, but its success depends on participation by people like you.  Check with your manager and get Form 9058.  Article 31 of the NTEU-IRS National Agreement provides more specifics on the Leave Bank.  

 H.R. 3340 will bring the Thrift Savings Plan into line with tax code changes Congress made last year with regard to private sector 40l(k) accounts.  In 2003, federal employees, like their private sector counterparts age 50 and older, will be able to contribute an additional $2,000 to their TSP accounts.  This amount will be in addition to the maximum amount employees are permitted to contribute to their accounts under the tax code.  For 2003, that limit is $l2,000.  With the beginning of the new year, all TSP participants will also be able to contribute a higher percentage of their income to their retirement accounts as a result of earlier legislation approved by Congress.  NTEU successfully pushed legislation in 2000 that steadily increases the percentage of salary that employees in both the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) may contribute to their TSP accounts.  In 2003, CSRS employees can contribute up to 8% of salary and FERS employees will be able to put up to l3% of their salary into their TSP accounts.  

 Federal workers driving their own vehicles on government business saw their mileage reimbursement rate go down by one half of one cent beginning January 1, 2003.  GSA ties its mileage reimbursement rate to the IRS standard mileage rate (36 cents per mile for 2003), which also went down in 2003 by the same amount.  For those of you driving your own privately owned motorcycles on government assignment, your 2003 reimbursement rate is 27.5 cents per mile, down one half of one cent also.  Believe it or not, the General Services Administration even publishes a mileage reimbursement rate for using your own privately owned airplane on government business - it's 95.5 cents per mile, down from 97.5 cents per mile in 2002.     

STAY UP TO DATE BY CHECKING THE
CHAPTER 49 INTERNET WEB SITE -

www.nteu49.org


Larry Lannan