Federal Daily News
Fed unions react harshly to reports of payroll tax extension deal
Press reports that congressional negotiators had included a measure to require new federal employees to pay more toward retirement as part of a bipartisan bill to extend the payroll tax cut and continue funding for unemployment benefits drew the rapid condemnation of federal employee groups.
As reports began to surface in the press midweek that House and Senate negotiators were close to a deal on the bill, federal labor leaders began to blast the bill, even as congressional sources warned that the legislation still was being finalized.
While details on pension measure varied from report to report, the union response did not.
“Now Congress is coming after the next generation of federal employees by asking them to pay a permanent price to solve a temporary problem,” said National Federation of Federal Employees President William Dougan in a statement. “Neither current nor future federal workers got our nation into this mess, yet Congress is trying to heap the responsibility of cleaning it up squarely on their backs. Why aren’t the wealthiest among us being asked to pay a little more? Why aren’t banks being asked to repay the public for the damage they caused to all of us just a few short years ago?”
American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage was equally tough on the bill.
“As I understand it, this backroom deal will require all newly hired federal employees to pay three times more for their pensions than currently required,” said Gage. “This action will drastically reduce take-home pay for these employees and make it harder for federal agencies to attract the best and brightest.”
National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley extrapolated on the potential financial fallout of the pension measure.
“What will happen with this increased contribution,” Kelley said, “is that employees will not be able to contribute fully to their [Thrift Savings Plan] accounts since they would be paying a lot more toward the defined benefit portion of their pension, essentially eliminating one of the three sources of their retirement income.”
That, she said, will produce “another generation of workers not fully able to fund their retirement. For our nation, this is short-sighted in the extreme.”