December 13, 2002
GILES FILES
By
Duncan Giles
President
NTEU Chapter 49
On this and that....
First off I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is ready for the holiday
season. Speaking of the holiday season, I hope everyone is clear on
the 2 hours of administrative time for the holidays. This can be used
in various ways. You can go to a holiday party for 2 hours (not including
your lunch) or you can use it to take off 2 hours early to go to an outside-work-the-workplace
celebration (or even quiet reflection). Another way it can be used
(and here’s where I have been hearing confusion) is thusly: you go
during your 45 minute lunch and have POD party. This lasts an extra
hour past your lunch time. You still have another hour to use to leave
early of come in late etc. Of course, this is subject to workload demands
but it cannot be used any later than January 3, 2003. If you are hearing
anything different than that please contact your favorite steward or officer
immediately.
On a pay raise for federal employees….the president has stated that he believes
it should be 3.1%. Because Congress has not passed most of the budget
appropriations bills (including ours where the pay raise of 4.1% is) that’s
the figure we will start off with. NTEU has been in contact with our
representatives in Congress and we have been told that despite the president’s
objections there is still bipartisan support for the 4.1% figure (the extra
1% would more than pay for one year of NTEU dues) and it should get strong
consideration once Congress reconvenes in January.
Locally, we are getting ready to sit down with management over support for
Walk-Ins and R-Mail. Contrary to what some of you have been told, there
will be local agreements on those issues this year. Karen McKibben
is handling the Walk-In support issues and Brian Kosteck is handling the
R-Mail efforts.
On a sadder note, Fred Mecum from the Call Site has resigned as a steward.
Fred has poured a tremendous amount of himself into his position as the Call
Site Steward Coordinator and says he just needs to take a well deserved break.
Fred will still be involved in Chapter 49 but in less demanding assignments.
I wish Fred the best and I want all to know that the Chapter (and especially
myself) will miss his wise counsel.
On that note I would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season full
of peace and goodwill. Our next newsletter will be after the holidays,
but continue to check out our Web site (updated and maintained as always
by our Chapter 49 Communications Coordinator Larry Lannan) at www.nteu49.org
for current updates.
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SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL NOW
ON THE IR WEB
The National Agreement between NTEU and IRS calls for an interactive system
to allow employees help in writing their self-assessments (the employee’s
input into the annual performance appraisal, also known as the evaluation).
The system was to have been ready October first, but encountered delays.
As of November 26, the system is now up and running. You can find the
site on the IR Web in the Shared Services section. If you have trouble
finding it, contact any Chapter 49 steward or officer for help. Remember
that you are entitled to 4 hours of work time during the last 30 days of
your appraisal period to write your self-assessment, which your manager must
consider in preparing your annual evaluation. This new system will
be very useful by providing help to employees writing self-assessments.
Also, the National Agreement provides a one-time opportunity for employees
to take the computer-based tutorial to learn how to use this system.
Arrange the time to take this tutorial with your manager. The opportunity
to use work time to write your self–assessment is just one more example of
what NTEU does for you.
CONTRACTING TELEPHONE
TAX LAW WORK:
THE LATEST
The IRS is still in the middle of a process called a "pre-feasibility" study
on what's called "competitive sourcing" - a process that could eventually
lead to some toll-free telephone work now done by IRS contracted out to private
companies. A pre-feasibility study is a first step. If that stage
finds there is a basis for a full-blown feasibility study, then the process
moves forward one more step toward a competition between the government workers
and the private businesses that will bid on the contract. If the pre-feasibility
study does not find sufficient promise to conduct the competitive sourcing,
then the process ends right there.
IRS has refused NTEU the chance to be involved in any way with the competitive
sourcing process. However, the agency has briefed NTEU at the national
level on the status of the process. The Service has four issues under
consideration. Here are the four:
--Can the IRS effectively interface with a vendor for tax law telephone inquiries
that escalate into accounts issues? IRS says the Joint Operations Center
(JOC) in Atlanta CAN facilitate the interface between IRS and a private vendor
if a tax law call moves into an accounts issue with no security risk.
--Does vendor interest and capability exist to provide telephone tax law
services for the IRS? Based on an IRS survey of call site vendors,
there were seven responses that expressed an "overwhelming interest and ability
to perform this work in the future." However, none of the firms responding
currently perform services involving tax law.
--Will a third party vendor be liable for errors in responding to tax law
inquiries? The answer from IRS legal counsel says such vendors would
NOT be liable for erroneous tax law advice.
--What is the scope of delivery of tax law services? The 2001 data
indicates tax law telephones (including such R-Mail and IRS Web site referrals)
expend 1,000 to 1,200 FTE (full time equivalent) positions.
Even though all the data above has been collected, there is at least one
more step to be completed in this pre-feasibility stage. The Service
is planning a pilot test that is expected to run from December 2002 to April
2003. IRS is telling NTEU that calls routed to the vendor as part of
this pilot will come from the calls IRS is unable to answer due to high volume.
NTEU plans to monitor activity to assure that is the case. NTEU has
been assured by management that this pilot will have no impact on bargaining
unit (rank and file) employees. The pilot test is to address pre-feasibility
issues of how to measure accuracy and quality of a vendor delivering this
service and determining how the taxpaying public will react to receiving
advice from a private vendor rather than an IRS employee. The Service
says it will analyze all those issues from information gathered in that pilot
program.
NTEU continues to believe our own people are doing an outstanding job dealing
with an incomprehensible tax law, and we are certain that current IRS employees
can do this work better and cheaper than any private contractor if the playing
field is level and fair.
Here's one important thing to remember: Accounts Management tells NTEU
that even if all tax law work was taken away from IRS employees, there will
continue to be enough accounts work year round to keep our call sites busy
and staffed at present levels. Our mix of work might be impacted, but
IRS claims no RIFs would be likely even if tax law were contracted eventually
(and that is far from certain at this time).
We'll update you when we have any more information on this study.
BLOOD DONATIONS &
ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE
A number of blood banks in Indiana have publicized a dangerous shortage of
blood. IRS employees that offer to donate blood are entitled to receive
4 hours of administrative leave to recover after the donation, and in addition
are allowed whatever reasonable time it takes to travel to and from the donation
site. This donation does not have to be made in connection with an
employer-sponsored blood donation program. Check out Article 36, Section
9 of the National Agreement for more details. If you have any questions,
contact any Chapter 49 steward or officer.
YOU MAY CONTACT NTEU CHAPTER 49 AT 317-226-6841
E-MAIL—nteu49@aol.com
FOR THE MOST UP-TO-DATE
INFORMATION, CHECK OUR WEB SITE AT www.nteu49.org
Larry Lannan
Communications Coordinator