April 2, 2004
GILES FILES
By
Duncan Giles
President
NTEU Chapter 49
On this & that......
Well, it looks like the payroll people are shooting for pay period 7 (checks
received in late April) for the rest of the pay raise to take effect. At
this point, that’s still a soft date. There is still no firm word on
when on when the extra money for the first 6 pay periods will appear in your
pocket. In a similar vein, it looks like pay parity for 2005 (linking the
civilian federal employee raise to the pay hike given the military) is finding
tough going in the House of Representatives. To learn what you can do to
help yourself, go to our website (www.nteu49.org) and we’ll show you how.
I sat through my first arbitration hearing for the Chapter recently.
Interesting experience. I will be relating more on that when the decision
comes down (best guess is after Labor Day).
In the coming months, I look for the Service to try and close down smaller
Posts of Duty (PODs) with fewer than 10 employees. There is no word
yet on whether Indiana will be impacted. Indiana has had a pretty big shakeout
on POD closings the last several years. Since none of our small PODs are
closer than 40 miles of each other, I am hopeful we will be spared in this
round of closings. However, we’re early in this game. If
proposals come forward to close any Indiana POD, Chapter 49 will be ready.
On the outsourcing front...it’s still a mass of confusion on several issues.
The administration is still pushing private contracting of IRS debt collection
to “assist” our Collection employees. I’m hoping common sense once again
prevails in Congress and this piece of legislation dies again this year.
If Congress gives us the resources and new hires we need, IRS employees can
collect that money much more cost-efficiently than the private sector. I
don’t know about you, but I think paying private contractors by commission
is fraught with pitfalls.
The mailroom saga continues. Management decided to directly outsource
those jobs (around 85 employees around the nation) well over a year ago.
We are still at impasse in bargaining over what sort of package the impacted
employees will receive. I envision that it’s very possible we will
have both the private contractor and the IRS employees on board at the same
time this summer. Does that sound like cost savings?
Speaking of impasse, I believe that’s right where NTEU and management are
going with the “transitioning” of the Case Processing and Insolvency jobs
at the Service Centers. I for one (and I’m not the only one) would
still like to see IRS quantify the savings from doing this and how exactly
it will relate to front line Compliance jobs. I don’t think this one
is going to be settled for a while.
Lastly - Chapter 49 members should not forget about our membership contest.
You could win up to $200 for your membership recruiting. See our Web
site (www.nteu49.org) for details.
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STATE OF COLLECTION
Susan Wright has served a long time as both Revenue Officer and Chapter 49
Steward. Susan currently serves as chapter vice president. She was recently
asked to comment on the state of the collection process. We thought
her views incisive, so we are sharing them with you.................................
As you know, my primary concerns have to do with two issues. As a working
Revenue Officer, as well as an NTEU officer and steward, my views come from
meetings with most Revenue Officers in the state and my own experiences.
Inventory Levels for ROs.
The current inventory levels were set up over 20 years ago. At that time,
the majority of the inventory was IMF and now a majority (large majority)
of the inventory is BMF. As you know, this presents challenges of its
own. Not only are there generally more complicated issues involved and Trust
Fund Recovery Penalties to complete, there is compliance to consider.
This can include several individuals as well as additional corporations and
partnerships. There is a complete lack of clerical assistance. Examples
of how this has changed the job include - when the inventory levels were
set up, the TFRP was completed by an RO Aide and levies were printed and
mailed by an RO Aide and property checks were done by an RO Aide. Revenue
Officers also continue to have additional duties added to the daily work.
Examples of this would be the Collection Due Process (CDP) tracking and monitoring,
several different time reports (3081, flex sheets, ICS), miscellaneous reports
requested by the group manager (overage, no touch) and now the new CFFCI.
Although employees are told to discuss the levels with managers, employees
know that the levels will not be below the minimum level which is generally
too high (Especially for grade 9 & 11 employees). Employees are
also hesitant to let managers know of the problem with inventory levels as
they find that the managers then think that they cannot manage their inventory.
Case Grading of Inventory
IDRS uses factors to make case grading decisions and it seems that most cases
assigned to grade 9 and 11 revenue officers are regarded by management. (either
at initial assignment or while the case is assigned). I feel that IDRS
should be corrected to make a correct determination of the grade. If
this is not done, the Inventory Delivery System can never work correctly.
QSI NATIONAL GRIEVANCE
IRS made a contractual commitment to award Quality Step Increases (QSIs)
to at least 4% of the rank-and-file employees. Unfortunately, data provided
by the Service shows that management did not live up to its contractual promises
during 2002 and 2003. The contract allows IRS to fall short of the 4% goal
if management documents “extraordinary circumstances” that prevent IRS from
reaching the 4% QSI goal. Management has failed to document any extraordinary
circumstances. As a result, NTEU has filed a national grievance. As a remedy,
NTEU is asking for a sufficient number of QSIs to be retroactively awarded
to reach the minimum goal of 4%.
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