Federal Daily - June 30, 2008

Hearing Considers ‘Full Implementation’ of FEPCA

Union leaders pressed in Congress this week to correct a persistent pay gap favoring private-sector workers over federal employees in similar jobs by 23 percent, according to a 2007 Federal Salary Council analysis. At issue in the hearing was a 1990 law—the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, or FEPCA—enacted to close the gap, but never properly implemented to meet that goal. In theory, FEPCA calls for bringing federal pay in line with private pay by compelling federal employers to make general and locality pay adjustments, indexed in part to private-sector wage increases. In practice, however, for every year since 1995 the White House has exercised a loophole in the law that permits non-implementation of FEPCA due to national emergency or “serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare.” The result, union leaders and other critics charge, has been a worsening pay gap—especially in certain regions and urban areas. “Regional concerns over the differing levels of locality pay and overall fairness of the current federal system can best be fixed through full implementation” of FEPCA, National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley said. Kelley and American Federation of Government Employees Public Policy Director Jacqueline Simon testified June 26 before the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce. For more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1300.

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APWU Critical of USPS New Network Plan

The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) criticized a new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Network Plan, which it says relies heavily on continued reductions in the USPS workforce via attrition and Area Mail Processing consolidations. In the plan submitted to Congress, USPS describes intended changes to the mail processing, transportation and the retail network and notes that declining mail volumes and recent changes in the mail mix make future work force reductions likely. USPS has cut its career employee work force by over 100,000 positions since Fiscal Year 2000, the plan noted. APWU President William maintained the plan only continues the current USPS strategy, which he said has failed to bring the Postal Service into financial solvency. “Year after year, budgets are established that call for reductions in the number of employees, the consolidation of facilities and other cost-cutting measures,” Burrus said in a June 26 statement. “This is a failed strategy and it cannot sustain America’s mail service.” He promised the union would remain vigilant to ensure work force changes were consistent with the union’s collective bargaining agreement. To see more, go to: http://apwu.org/news/burrus/2008/update07-2008-062608.htm.

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VA Launches Expansion in Veterans Health Facilities

Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) James Peake announced June 26 that VA plans to create 44 new community-based outpatient health care clinics in 21 states. The new clinics, scheduled to be activated over the next 15 months, will increase VA’s network of independent and community-based clinics to 782—an increase of about 100 (15 percent) in the past five years. The expansion was designed to meet the anticipated growth in demand for veterans’ health care, Peake said, noting that 98 percent of veterans are seen within 30 days of first making contact for a VA primary care appointment. Among the new clinics are five  new facilities in Texas, four in Oklahoma, three in Virginia, five in Louisiana and one in Greenbrier County, W.Va., VA said in a statement. “VA continues to make access to care easier through an expanding outpatient system,” Peake said. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1522.

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