August 6, 2004
GILES FILES
By
Duncan Giles
President
NTEU Chapter 49
On this & that......
I hope everyone is having a good summer. Enjoy the weather while you
can.
I was recently on a conference call with new SB/SE Commissioner Kevin Brown
and found him receptive to points that I and other Chapter Presidents were
making. I don’t think Mr. Brown will change much but at least he understood
where we were coming from. An example is training. I mentioned
that the old style of training was much more effective than the “E-Learning”
now so popular at IRS. Some of the most important information learned
at training was gained through discussion among groups of Revenue Agents
and Revenue Officers. Mr. Brown agreed with me. He went on to
state that getting people together for training is a huge expense and if
he had a choice between doing training the old way and hiring 50 new Compliance
employees, he’ll choose the hiring every time. Commissioner Brown said
he’d rather expand our workforce but realizes, at the same time, the current
method of training isn’t working as well as it should and he’s looking at
ways to improve it. I give Mr. Brown credit for giving an honest answer
while understanding that NTEU is pushing hard to get employees effective,
useful training. We shall see.
At the Call Site, all the seasonal employees have now been furloughed.
This was due to an interpretation nationally of guidance issued by the Office
of Personnel Management (OPM). NTEU is currently fighting this because the
work is still here. The public continues to call our toll-free number seeking
help but now there are fewer assistors to answer the calls. We expect
vacation requests and training for the permanent staff will suffer because
management at the national level is not providing the local call sites with
a corresponding decrease in the numbers of calls to be answered. We can only
be stretched so thin.
Finally, NTEU recently won an arbitration case over the increased number
of accounting hours and mix of courses a Revenue Agent must possess (from
24 hours to 30, and additional advanced courses). The IRS has said
they will appeal this case to the courts. To me, this is not a good
sign. I firmly believe that each employee must have the proper education
to do the job. That is a given. Here’s where I don’t agree with
the IRS view – the Service arbitrarily decided to increase the number of
hours and types of courses for no sound reason. The arbitrator (a university
law professor) noted in his decision that with all the Revenue Agents who
were grandfathered-in with the lesser requirements doing well, what is the
justification for more stringent educational requirements? Conversely, why
does a Taxpayer Resolution Representative (TRR) working on a counter need
a certain number of accounting hours? An even better example is a Tax
Specialist in SPEC which has an accounting requirement – this is needed to
do outreaches to the general public or to assist at VITA sites? We
need to make decisions on educational requirements based on the work that
is done and not on some unfathomable criteria.
That’s it for now.
Moving? Contact Chapter 49 and let us know about your new address.
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JOIN NTEU – GET $25 IN
GAS
There are many benefits to joining NTEU. Chapter 49 has just added
one more. Now through September 17, any new member signing-up with NTEU Chapter
49 will receive a card worth $25 in gasoline purchases in your local area.
Even though you have until September 17, don’t put the decision off.
The sooner you sign-up, the sooner we can send you the $25 gas card. See
any Chapter 49 officer or steward if you’re not already a member and want
to join NTEU Chapter 49.
CONGRESS, PAY,
CONTRACTING & RIFs
Congress is on its annual August recess, but we need to update you on three
major issues winding through the Capitol Hill process.
The House Appropriations Committee voted 42-16 to approve a 3.5% average
pay raise for federal employees in 2005. This was a major victory for
federal workers because the White House continues to push for a lower 1.5%
wage hike for federal workers next year. The Senate panel with jurisdiction
over our pay raise is expected to approve the higher 3.5% raise in the next
few weeks. Chapter 49 urges you to contact your local member of Congress
and Senators Bayh and Lugar to express your support for the 3.5% federal
employee pay raise for 2005. NOTE: Do not contact an elected
official on a government computer or phone. Do not contact an elected
official during work time. You may contact elected officials using
your own phone or computer on your own time.
Meanwhile, a House committee passed an amendment that helps level the playing
field when federal employees are forced to compete with private contractors.
The measure ensures federal workers the chance to offer their best bids in
these competitions, and would require contractors to show a minimum cost
savings over in-house competitors to be awarded a contract. We will
keep you posted on the status of this measure.
Finally, NTEU has secured a major victory by convincing the House Appropriations
Committee to insert language into the IRS budget bill that requires the agency
to provide substantial information before moving ahead with reductions-in-force
(RIFs). This is of special interest to those workers in Indiana working
in Case Processing and Insolvency. This committee language is a directive
from Congress and not in the statute, but lawmakers normally expect federal
agencies to follow committee report language. This provision would
require IRS to justify its RIF actions. The full House and Senate have
yet to act on this. We’ll keep you posted here and at
www.nteu49.org
ODDS &
ENDS
NTEU is going to arbitration because IRS’ own information verifies that (in
our view) the Service has not complied with the National Agreement provision
to award Quality Step Increases (QSIs) to 4-5% of the rank-and-file workers.
NTEU National President Colleen Kelley says she has been assured by management
that IRS will not normally limit promotions within a division as has been
the case with several recent job announcements.
Legislation introduced in the Senate would provide a dental and vision benefit
for federal workers, funded entirely by workers (no government subsidy) but
would enjoy the discount allowed by a large pool available to private providers.
We’ll let you know if this measure gets close to enactment.