FederalDaily - April 30, 2007

20 FNS Early Retirees to Get Reinstatement Offers

At least 20 employees of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) who took early retirement in the face of a reduction-in-force will now have the option of returning to work following an arbitrator’s decision, said the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represented the workers in the case. Arbitrator Arline Pacht found that the Department of Agriculture’s FNS violated both federal labor law and the parties’ contract with its unilateral implementation of a Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) program, said NTEU. Agencies use VERA to temporarily lower the age and service requirements in order to boost the number of employees who are eligible for retirement. In the case in question, FNS, anticipating budget issues in FY 2007, determined that it wanted to reduce its staff by 73 full-time equivalent positions. It implemented VERA after just two days of negotiations—leaving three key union proposals unresolved, the union said. NTEU said Pacht’s ruling provides the retirees with the right to both reinstatement and back pay equal to the difference between their salaries at the time they retired—less any money received from their pensions. NTEU President Colleen Kelley said the decision in the case will have “important ramifications” throughout the federal workplace. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org

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House Leaders Seek Assurances Over EPA Libraries

Four House leaders sought assurances from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson that the agency has stopped disposing of or dispersing critical research documents in a much criticized plan to close a number of EPA libraries. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology; Rep. John Dingell, D, Mich., chairman of the Energy Committee; Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Government Reform Committee and Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the Transportation Committee, sent an April 26 letter to Johnson seeking a response by May 4. At issue is an EPA $2 million budget-cutting effort which seeks to shutter 10 percent of EPA’s network of laboratories and research centers, which currently employ about 2,000 scientists. “This letter is another important step toward making things right for the troubled EPA library system,” said Loriene Roy, president-elect of the American Library Association, which has fought the closures. To see more, go to: www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=news&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=156472    

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Bill Would Remedy Military Benefit Inequities

Under a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., financial penalties imposed by the military’s Survivor Benefits Plan (SBP) would be eliminated for 170,000 World War II- and Korean War-era veterans, as well as 61,000 widows and widowers of servicemembers. The Dependency and Indemnity Compensation offset bill (S.935) addresses a major SBP inequity, Webb said April 25. Under current law, the government reduces survivor benefits by the amount of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) that the family receives from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). DIC payments are made to servicemembers’ and military retirees’ surviving spouses whose death resulted from injuries received on active duty. The bill would eliminate the DIC deduction from families’ survivor benefits. “By eliminating this benefits penalty, we ensure the retirement security that they deserve,” Webb said. The bill would also allow younger servicemembers—who retired from the military after 1978—to be eligible for SBP payments after paying 30 years of premiums. To see more, go to: http://webb.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=273109&;

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