October 31, 2003
GILES FILES
By
Duncan Giles
President
NTEU Chapter 49
On this & that......
I’ll be writing on two main topics today.
The first is on a subject I mentioned in my last column. This is the
employee tax compliance audit letters that are going out. The results
of these audits go to TIGTA. Please keep a few things in mind.
One – if you are asked to travel out of state to meet with the Tax Compliance
Officer (TCO) or Revenue Agent (RA), ask them to come to you.
You are not required to go out of state for these audit meetings unless it
is more convenient for you.
Two – if you had a tax professional prepare your tax return, by all means
take that tax pro along as anyone would do when under IRS audit.
Third – let Chapter 49 know ASAP if you receive one of these audit letters,
so we can assist you. You are allowed to have union representation
throughout this process. I fervently believe that you will be better off
with a union representative to make sure the auditors are not being told
to do or ask for anything that is not standard auditing procedure because
it’s being done for this program.
Your tax matters are (of course) confidential and will remain so. NTEU
just wants to ensure this is done properly like any other audit. You
have rights if you are selected to be scrutinized under this tax compliance
initiative. I urge you to use those rights.
The second issue deals with pay grades. I’m asked several times a week
questions such as, “When will CSRs go to a grade 9 pay level,” or, “Why aren’t
Revenue Officers or Revenue Agents journey level Grade 12 in SB/SE?”
I fully agree that these (and other) positions should be graded higher.
That being said, there is a bigger concern now. All across the Service
jobs are being scrutinized to see if they can be outsourced.
Per Mike Causey (columnist for www.federalnewsradio.com) employees are already
outnumbered by contractors in the federal government by a 6 to 1 margin.
But the current administration wants to go further. IRS management
in Washington is even advocating the use of private contractors to do collection
work instead of hiring more Revenue Officers. Both nationally and locally
NTEU is fighting to keep good employees on the rolls to do the jobs they
were hired and trained to do. IRS workers do their jobs very well.
Maybe you are saying to yourself, “this doesn’t affect me, I know my job
is safe.” Don’t be so sure. The next group targeted to look at could
be yours.
Are a vast majority of employees underpaid at the journey level? I
believe we can make that case, yes. Is it better to be sitting at that
grade than having a contractor do your job? It’s that serious.
I just want to put this in perspective for everyone.
Lastly, Clarence Mullins has resigned as a steward at the Call Site and we
wish him the best. Also, last week I made a grievous error of calling
our new Treasurer Marcia Loop a TCO when, in fact, she is a Tax Auditor.
Sorry Marcia!
Happy Halloween everyone!
That’s it for now.
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4.1% RAISE NEXT YEAR LOOKS PROMISING
The Senate and House have both voted to give federal employees an average
4.1% pay raise in 2004. The House voted weeks ago to provide the raise
amount, with the Senate vote coming October 23rd. The White House had
proposed a 2% average raise for next year. The Senate vote brightens
the prospect for the higher raise, but nothing is certain until the president
signs the budget bill into law. We will watch this closely and update
you in this newsletter and on our Web site (www.nteu49.org).
One cautionary note. Early indications point to a larger part of the
4.1% raise going to locality pay this time around. That’s good news
for IRS employees in the Merrillville office, because their pay raise is
tied into Chicago and Chicago generally gets a better raise when more money
is allocated to locality. However, the rest of us in Indiana may see
a slightly lower raise. For example, current projections show that
if the average 4.1% pay raise is enacted for 2004, all Indiana IRS workers
(except Merrillville) would receive a 3.89% pay hike.
THANK CONGRESSMAN CHOCOLA
Congressman Chris Chocola from Indiana’s South Bend area went out on a limb
for us, and Chapter 49 urges you to express your gratitude to him.
The lawmaker was one of 14 House Republicans to send a public letter to Speaker
Dennis Hastert asking that provisions in an international corporate tax bill
allowing private collection agencies to collect taxes for the IRS be
removed. He cites privacy and taxpayer rights as major concerns over
this provision. NTEU strongly supports this move in the House.
It is a courageous act for any member of the House to challenge the leadership,
but Congressman Chocola did just that. Chapter 49 urges you to contact
him and thank him for his stance on contracting IRS collection work.
We especially urge you to thank him if you reside in his Congressional district.
If you have any questions on how and when to contact Chocola, ask any Chapter
49 steward or officer.
SENATE PANEL OKS
COMP TIME FOR TRAVEL
A big sore spot with many IRS employees is the way travel time is handled.
If you have a training class that starts on Monday morning, current travel
regulations make it impossible to travel on Sunday and earn compensatory
(comp) time for the hours traveled. NTEU has worked to find a legislative
solution to this problem. We have some good news to report. Senate
bill S.129 would allow federal employees to earn comp time while traveling
to or from a government assignment outside normal work hours. NTEU
had problems with other provisions that had been included in S.129, but the
most onerous provisions have been stripped from the bill. Now that
the measure has passed the Senate committee, it goes to the full Senate for
a vote. We will keep you posted on the progress of this legislation
in this newsletter and on our Web site (www.nteu49.org).
NATIONAL TREASURY
EMPLOYEES UNION
CHAPTER 49
President
Duncan Giles
Vice President Susan Wright
Treasurer Marcia
Loop
Secretary Cynthia Underwood
Chief Steward Karen McKibben
Communications Larry Lannan
If you have any questions or comments about this newsletter, our Web site
(www.nteu49.org) or anything else we do, please contact us at 317-226-6841,
or e-mail us at nteu49@aol