September 20, 2002



GILES FILES

By
Duncan Giles
President
NTEU Chapter 49


On this and that….Congratulations to steward Sylvia Sanders for being named an SB/SE group manager in Carmel.  I think she’ll do a fine job.  It’s just nice to finally see some permanent managers named for SB/SE Compliance.

Had an opportunity to sit in on 2 recent 3rd step grievances for LMSB (presented very ably by Brian Kosteck and Bill Stevens, I might add).  Mary Tarpley was the hearing official and I must say I was impressed by her understanding of the issues raised.  It was refreshing to see that kind of awareness about how things work (or don’t work) at her level.

On the national awards agreement payoff being delayed...this shouldn’t be a surprise.  Anyone who’s heard my spiel on that in the last year would know that I’m very impressed they’ll have it ready by the end of this month.  It’s also a good thing they caught the glitch early or it could have resulted in who knows how many thousands of grievances across the country.

In W&I Field Assistance...even though they didn’t want to, it looks like they’ll need some SB/SE support this year.  I can’t blame W&I Field Assistance for this one since for the last 3 years they have been promised a certain amount of hiring and then the staffing is drastically cut.  That brings W&I Field Assistance back to asking for other divisions for help.  Discussions are beginning nationally on how this will be done in the upcoming filing season.  We shall see.

I was in D.C during Labor Day week for negotiations concerning the Call Site conversion from SB/SE to W&I.  It is always an eye opener to see what the National Office perceives is going on versus at the Call Sites.  The main issue that is still being discussed is training.  The sides differ on how much is enough if you were trained way back when on something and haven’t used it for years.  Do you need a refresher or do you need to start from scratch?  I suspect the answer is somewhere in the middle.  

Also at the Call Site, there appears to be a little confusion on the latest survey we’ve dropped there.  The problem with the air out there was due to the high levels of carbon dioxide.  Any dust or mold that was found was negligible and very comparable to what you would normally find.  We included it in the survey since a few people who have taken copies to their physicians mentioned it in their comments.  However, as far as we can tell, dust and mold haven’t been a problem at our Call Site.

That’s it for now.

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AWARDS PAYMENTS:
DELAYED


As Duncan mentioned above, the payments for the new national awards program have been delayed.  As we go to press, the word we have is that those on the direct deposit system will have the payments September 30, others should see the checks October 2nd.  The delay resulted from a test run that revealed a number of glitches.  Rather than have numerous incorrect payouts, the decision was made to wait and get it right.

Many Chapter 49 members have expressed concern about the national awards agreement and have said the local agreement Chapter 49 negotiated many years ago was a far superior system compared to the one we have now.  We at Chapter 49 have no argument with that.  We liked the old local contract on awards.  The reason there is a national and not a local agreement stems from the management’s hard line in the most recent bargaining over awards.  In order to preserve some kind of fair and equitable system, the national awards program was negotiated.  There is much that is good about the new national agreement.  And NTEU continues to push management to award more Quality Step Increases (QSIs).  Let’s give the new national awards program a chance.  It may not be better than the old local contract, but it’s what we have now.          

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VOLUNTEER TIME:
NATIONAL GRIEVANCE


Article 36, Section 11, of the National Agreement provides an exciting new provision.  It allows employees to receive up to 8 hours of administrative time per year to volunteer time for a  “legitimate public service organization.”  The IRS must approve the organizations eligible for this, but at the time the provision was being negotiated, that didn’t seem to be a major problem.  A September 4th, 2002 Memo issued by management takes the position that the only “public service organization” activities allowed under this contract provision will be the IRS-sponsored  volunteer programs, such as VITA and TCE.  NTEU believes this narrow interpretation of the contract provision is improper, and a national grievance has been filed to challenge the management’s interpretation.  Anyone with specific examples of leave being denied under this contract provision should e-mail Dean Crawford at Dean.Crawford@irs.gov.  

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TAX LAW CONTRACTING:
AN UPDATE


You have been reading and hearing about a “pre-feasibility” study the IRS is conducting on the possibility of contracting out to the private sector some of the telephone tax law work done at Accounts Management Call Sites such as the one here in Indianapolis.  There have been some developments on this issue, so as part of Chapter 49’s ongoing effort to keep you as informed and up-to-date as possible, here is the latest information.

IRS management is in the final stages of a “pre-feasibility” study phase.  This phase looks at whether there is any reason to move forward with a full-blown feasibility study on this contracting proposal.  NTEU has no ability to become involved in the process at the pre-feasibility or feasibility study, but IRS management has agreed to brief national union officials on the status of the process.  Commissioner Rossotti will receive the results of the pre-feasibility study in late September, and then the decision will be made to either stop the process there or move forward with a full-blown feasibility study that would take about six months to complete.

The most recent briefing indicates that IRS is now looking to expand the scope of the contracting proposal.  But note that the expansion would only include e-mailed tax questions sent to Web sites, R-Mail referrals now staffed by Compliance employees and forms distribution center Call Site work.  The expansion of scope does not directly impact anyone working at the Indianapolis Call Site.

This process has a long way to go, even if it is not stopped along the way because it does not appear feasible.  In a worst case scenario it would take years for tax law work to actually be contracted to the private sector.  We at Chapter 49 continue to believe that our own people can do this work better and cheaper than any possible private contractor.  But since this process is moving forward, we just want you to know where it stands, and we will continue to keep you posted on any developments.

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NTEU APPRECIATES IRS
SECRETARIES


NTEU has been saying for some time now that IRS secretaries, especially those at the GS-5 level, are in need of an upgrade.  When GS-6 secretarial positions outside the bargaining unit were upgraded to GS-7 as part of the IRS reorganization, NTEU continued to ask why the GS-5s in the bargaining unit were not also being upgraded.  The Service agreed to form a committee with NTEU. At first, all seemed well.  Then the classifiers just said no to the upgrade, wouldn't explain why and wouldn't give any indication what duties needed to be added to the GS-5 to qualify for an upgrade to GS-5 on the pay schedule.  

NTEU National President Colleen Kelley recently met with Deputy Commissioner Bob Wenzel in an attempt to get this process back on track.  Wenzel said an upgrade of secretaries from GS-5 to GS-6 would cost the Service about $10 million IRS cannot afford.  NTEU cannot verify this figure and has no idea how it was computed.  Colleen described the meeting with Wenzel as one where neither he nor she changed their minds.

President Kelley says there are three things she plans to do in an effort to push for the secretarial upgrade.  First, the national union will ask the Service to compare the GS-5 secretary population to the GS-6/7 non-unit population to see if there are any disparities that might violate the law.  Secondly, a petition will be circulated that each grade 5 secretary will be encouraged to sign, so Colleen can present it to the new commissioner.  Lastly, Colleen will encourage NTEU members to write down their thoughts about why they think this decision is wrong, e.g., how they do more complex work than they are given credit for, how they serve two or more work groups, how technical and professional employees have to be pulled away from their duties to help out with secretarial work because there
is too much to do, etc.


NTEU plans to fight for the secretaries, the backbone of the IRS.  Colleen said it best - "While I cannot promise any secretary that we are going to win this fight, I can promise that we will not leave one stone unturned in our effort to correct this injustice."