Federal Daily - April 23, 2008
NTEU FOIA Lawsuit Seeks TSA Testing Documents
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA)
lawsuit seeking Transportation Security Administration (TSA) documents in an effort
to determine whether the agency’s annual screener certification testing is
fair and nondiscriminatory. The tests play a key role in the yearly certification
process for front-line security screeners to retain their jobs, the union said in
an April 21 statement. The tests also have been an integral part of TSA’s Performance
and Accountability Standards System (PASS), which is used to determine employees’ merit
pay and promotion opportunities. The union has been critical of PASS implementation.
NTEU filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after
TSA failed to respond to the union’s FoIA request for the documents. The union
is seeking information addressing various aspects of the certification process, including
management directives concerning proficiency reviews dating back to 2002; job, occupational
and work analyses and validation studies, and information about the impact of the
certification testing requirement on employees by race, gender, national origin,
age group, disability status and job title. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1257.
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OPM Launches Enhanced Telework Web Site
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on April 21 announced the launch of an enhanced interagency
telework Web site that features a series of user-friendly improvements designed to make telework information
more accessible and understandable to federal employees. The updated site, www.telework.gov,
allows users to read and download telework guidance, legislation, reports and studies. A searchable
database helps users seek answers for telework-related questions. If answers cannot be found onsite,
the questions can be routed to experts who will respond via email, OPM said. The site also offers quick
links to key pages, online telework training and access to telework-related policies such as reasonable
accommodation and emergency closure. The site was developed in partnership with the General Services
Administration. To see more, go to: www.opm.gov/news/opm-launches-enhanced-telework-website,1380.aspx.
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Waxman Seeks Details On Military's Conduct Waivers
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., on April 21 asked DoD to explain why the Army and Marine Corps are granting
what it said is a sharply increasing number of personnel conduct waivers that allow convicted felons
to join the military. In a letter to Under Secretary of Defense David Chu, Waxman noted that the number
of such waivers in the Army has more than doubled from Fiscal Year 2006 to FY 2007, and also has increased
sharply in the Marine Corps. Specifically, Waxman said, the Army accepted more than double the number
of applicants with convictions for felony crimes such as burglary, grand larceny and aggravated assault,
rising from 249 to 511—a 105 percent increase. At the same time, the number of applicants with
felonies who were accepted by the Marines increased 68 percent, jumping from 208 to 350. Most convictions
involved theft, but a handful involved sexual assault and terrorist threats, and there were three cases
of involuntary manslaughter, Waxman said. “Concerns have been raised that the significant increase
in the recruitment of persons with criminal records is a result of the strain put on the military by
the Iraq war and may be undermining military readiness,” Waxman wrote. To see more, go to: http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1889.
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