FederalDaily.com > NTEU Chides FSIP for Pro-Agency Stance

FederalDaily - November 29, 2007

NTEU Chides FSIP for Pro-Agency Stance

National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen Kelley last week criticized the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), saying the panel has sided with management in nearly 80 percent of the cases it has addressed in the past year. The seven-member FSIP, tasked with resolving any impasses that occur when agencies and their unions bargain over conditions of employment, wields significant power because its decisions are final. But according to an NTEU analysis, in the 12 months ending in October, FSIP sided with agencies 47 times and employees 12 times—an almost four to one difference. Those are markedly different results compared to the panel under the Clinton administration, NTEU said, when rulings were less skewed toward management, and the panel reached compromises in more than a quarter of cases. Kelley said a lack of extensive labor law experience at FSIP—as well as a cutback in FSIP professional staff—has driven the trend. In 2001, NTEU noted, there were six full-time professional employees assisting the panel. Now there are two. “The most successful agreements are those that are hashed out at the bargaining table. This FSIP needs to do far more to encourage compromise,” Kelley said. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org.

APWU Critical of Postal OIG Audit

American Postal Workers Union (APWU) President William Burrus criticized a new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) audit suggesting USPS could save more than $1 billion by reducing contributions to the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program and the Federal Employee Group Life Insurance plan. The 10-year savings estimate was contained in a USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report released in September. In a Nov. 16 letter to IG David Williams posted on the union’s Web site this week, Burrus said OIG had inappropriately inserted itself into the collective bargaining arena. Burrus also said that the savings figures cited in the report were based on a faulty comparison. The IG analysis compared the USPS negotiated-benefit programs to those of six federal and five quasi-federal agencies, Burrus said, and ignored the statutory mandate “to establish and maintain wages and benefits comparable to the private sector.” The APWU president also criticized OIG for the report’s failure to address billions of dollars granted to major mailers in work-sharing discounts. “Rather than producing an irrelevant comparison of postal benefit costs to those in other federal agencies,” Burrus wrote, “your office would better serve the public interest by exposing this collusion between major mailers and postal management.” To see more, go to: http://apwu.org/news/webart/2007/webart07108-usps_oig-071127.htm.

OPM Names Executive Institute Director

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Nov. 27 announced it had named Kevin L. Marshall as director of the Federal Executive Institute (FEI)—an executive development center located in Charlottesville, Va. Marshall was previously the director of the Coast Guard Leadership Development Center, where he worked to increase student enrollment and developed an enterprise-wide, Web-based leadership tool, said OPM Director Linda Springer. Marshall’s previous work experience includes a number of positions within the Coast Guard. He most recently served as chief of staff of the Coast Guard’s Eighth District, where he was responsible for its operations, administration and strategic planning. To see more, go to: www.opm.gov/news/opm-director-appoints-kevin-l-marshall-as-director-of-the-federal-executive-institute,1341.aspx.