Federal Daily - November 26, 2008

GAO: DOL Unable to Assess Outsourcing Benefits

After a four-year workforce privatization effort, the Department of Labor (DOL) cannot reliably assess whether its competitive sourcing provides the best value for taxpayers, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report dated Nov. 21. What’s more, DOL seems to have overstated outsourcing savings, while underestimating costs, the report said. Since 2004, GAO said, DOL has held 28 competitions involving 1,029 full-time equivalent positions designated as “commercial”—positions of employees such as training specialists, information technology specialists and maintenance mechanics, who provide providing recurring services that could be performed by the private sector. Given that DOL employees have won all but three of the competitions the agency has held, Congress asked GAO to determine whether competitive sourcing has achieved increased efficiency or cost savings. But GAO found that DOL’s estimates of cost savings can’t be trusted, the report said. “Without a better system to assess performance and comprehensively track all the costs associated with competitive sourcing, DOL cannot reliably assess whether competitive sourcing truly provides the best deal for the taxpayer,” the report said. To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d0914.pdf.

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Appeals Court Sides With EEOC Worker

A federal appellate panel has sided with an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) worker who complained she was illegally transferred when she returned to her civilian job after two years of military service. Army Reserve officer Lt. Col. Ermea J. Russell complained that EEOC violated her Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) rights when it transferred her from her previous work location in Jackson, Miss., when she returned from active duty. The ruling centered on a jurisdictional issue over whether the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) could hear Russell’s appeal, according to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represented Russell. Upon her transfer, Russell filed an appeal with MSPB, which originally ruled in her favor and then reversed itself, eventually ruling it did not have jurisdiction. However, a panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted NTEU’s motion to vacate the MSPB decision, the union said Nov. 24. The panel agreed with the union, which argued that collective bargaining agreements do not limit USERRA rights, including the right to file an appeal with MSPB, NTEU said. The decision is expected to have wide-ranging procedural impact on claims by veterans asserting these rights, said NTEU President Colleen Kelley. “This is an important case because the MSPB has dismissed other claims filed by veterans on the grounds that they were required to pursue their claims through the grievance route only,” Kelley said. The case is Russell v. MSPB, No. 2008-3106. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1338.

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USPS Ends Bronx AMP, Consolidates Mail Processing in Kansas City

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has terminated an Area Mail Processing (AMP) study that proposed consolidating mail from three major processing facilities in the Bronx, N.Y., to a Manhattan facility, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) announced on Nov. 24. However, USPS said it was moving ahead with a consolidation plan to close down a leased mail processing facility in Kansas City, Kan., and combine that processing at a USPS plant in Kansas City, Mo., APWU said. The two facilities are approximately 10 miles apart. In the notice about the Kansas City AMP, USPS said that “some affected career employees may be reassigned to the Kansas City, Mo. (office) or to other vacant positions.” In the Bronx AMP study, USPS had proposed transferring secondary processing activities from the Bronx center and two other facilities in the borough to the facility located in midtown Manhattan. The Bronx AMP was challenged by community groups and Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y. It is the latest in a series of AMP studies that USPS has abandoned, APWU noted. On Nov. 3, the Postal Service announced that two other consolidation plans—from Sioux City, Iowa, to Sioux Falls, S.D., and from Aberdeen, S.D., to Huron, S.D.—had been scrapped. To see more, go to: www.apwu.org/news/webart/2008/08112-consol-081124.htm.

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