July 9, 2004

GILES FILES
By
Duncan Giles
President
NTEU Chapter 49

On this & that......

First, I hope everyone had a great three-day weekend!  

Congratulations to Steward Joseph Roberts and former Steward Fred Mecum who both got married in the latter half of June.

Well, it’s mid-term bargaining time. The National Agreement has a five-year duration.  Halfway into the five years, both management and NTEU are allowed to propose changes in 5 articles each in the National Agreement and can submit up to two additional articles to be added to the pact. 

Management has submitted its 5 articles – they are, Article 9, Official Time...Article 11, Facilities....Article 19, RIFs....Article 23, Hours of Work and Article 50, Flexiplace.

NTEU has listed the following – Article 12, Performance Appraisals.....Article 13, Promotions....Article 18, Awards....Article 41, Grievance Procedures and Article 46, LMRC (Labor-Management Relations Committees).

Management proposed no new articles to the agreement.  NTEU proposed two new articles be added...
--IRS Personnel Flexibilities Enactment - to address flexibilities allowed by law but not used by IRS management that could benefit workers.     

--Enhancing Employee Satisfaction and Quality of Worklife – In Balanced Measures, Employee Satisfaction is supposed to be one-third, along with Customer Satisfaction and Business Results.  This proposed article would be aimed at treating Employee Satisfaction as an equal balanced measure (we don’t think it’s one-third of balanced measures now).

All we know now is that management wants to reopen the five articles listed above.  We do not yet know what management proposes to change in those articles.  We should have some indication within the next two weeks.  I can assure you that, as always, NTEU will fight as hard as possible against any take-backs that would hurt employees under these contract articles.  Check our Chapter 49 Web site for the latest – www.nteu49.org
 

Chapter 49 has initiated some local bargaining on issues ranging from flexibility in caring for relatives to proper ergonomic furniture to managers communicating better with employees.  We will be looking for members from all over the state to serve on these teams.  If you have any interest, please let a Chapter 49 officer or steward know.

Lastly, we are unfortunately looking at a wholesale furlough of all Accounts Management seasonal employees across the nation by the end of July.  For those furloughed, you will not be paying any dues while on furlough status and your dues will not be withheld again until you return to work.  This is not like health insurance, where you must pay back the premiums not paid during the furlough.  NTEU does not charge you any dues while you are on furlough, but you retain all membership privileges, including access to all our discount programs.

That’s it for now.


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CONTRACTING
COLLECTION

A major corporate tax bill has passed both the House and Senate.  Both versions include a provision allowing IRS to contract some collection work to private collection agencies.  The legislation now goes to a House-Senate Conference Committee to work out differences in the versions passed by each body.  There are a number of major differences in the House and Senate versions, even though they agree so far on the issue of tax collection by  private firms.  NTEU’s Legislative Department will be doing everything possible to convince conferees not to keep the collection contracting provision. If we are unsuccessful there, we plan to use the Treasury Department Appropriation Bill as a vehicle to stop the contracting of collection work to private collectors.  We will keep you posted on any developments in this newsletter and at
www.nteu49.org


COMP TIME FOR
TRAVEL

Many IRS employees have encountered the problem of not earning compensatory time for official IRS travel.  The law has always been the biggest stumbling block.  The Senate has passed legislation (S.129) that would allow federal employees to earn comp hours while traveling on official business.  A key House committee has now approved the bill.  We hope the bill will be sent to the House floor for a vote.  If it receives approval there, the measure would go back to the Senate for final passage and would be sent to the White House for the President’s signature. NTEU has pushed similar legislation for years, and this is by far the closest we have ever been to enacting this provision.  We will keep you posted on the progress of this key piece of legislation.



MAXIFLEX VICTORY

IRS and NTEU agreed to conduct a pilot for a program called "Maxiflex" in the National Agreement. When we sat down with management at the national level, IRS wanted to severely limit the scope of the pilot to such an extent it was going to be virtually impossible to conduct the pilot.  Maxiflex is an experiment to greatly expand the scope of the alternative work schedule, including some 12-hour days for employees volunteering to use the program. 

We now have a ruling from the government body charged with resolving bargaining impasses between federal unions and agencies, the Federal Services Impasse Panel (FSIP).  The FSIP has ruled in favor of NTEU in three major areas of disagreement over Maxiflex talks. 

What this means is this - NTEU can now begin serious bargaining with IRS over the Maxiflex program so employees can begin participating in the pilot program as soon as possible.   


JOINING NTEU IS VERY EASY.  JUST CONTACT ANY CHAPTER 49 OFFICER OR STEWARD AND WE’LL TAKE CARE OF THE REST.  JOIN WITH THE ONLY INSTITUTION LOOKING OUT FOR YOUR INTERESTS – JOIN NTEU TODAY!