On this and that….First, as Larry Lannan will explain further, it looks like employees won some and lost some in the Omnibus spending bill passed by Congress.  We got the pay parity with the military but protections against rampant outsourcing of our jobs were taken out of the measure at the insistence of the White House. NTEU continues to pursue other avenues to make sure the playing field is level for employees and private sector contractors.

 

CFC is winding down. If you are able I urge you to contribute whatever you can.

  <>I’ve been hearing about some trends nationally about use of IRS e-mail.  Remember this is the Service’s system. There is no expectation of privacy. Soliciting money for a business, charity, etc. is strictly forbidden.  If such an e-mail comes to you, please delete it immediately.

Also in this newsletter you will see an article from Anne Brown about a Town Hall meeting she attended in Merrillville with new (to Indiana) Exam Director Faris Fink. There was a positive response to his style and answers to employee questions. I got some candid answers in a meeting with him.  Hopefully this will work out well for our RAs, TCOs and clerical people under him.

<>TEC and SPEC folks have been solicited to gauge their interest in coming back to the field if they came to TEC or SPEC from Compliance.  From the national numbers I have heard, quite a few have indicated a willingness to do so. According to IRS executives, this will not impact future promotions for those already working in Compliance. We will have to take a wait & see attitude about this.  I’m expecting the impact in Indiana to be minimal from this initiative.

At the Call Site, we’ve had more issues go formal than at any time in recent memory.  We are having to do more grievances and oral replies than ever.  This is NOT happening because of the recent change in Operations Managers.  In fact, we had a positive response form local management on a read time issue, when we discovered that management had been providing extra read time for employees when returning from leave and would begin to provide extra read time when employees return from a lengthy training class.  Call Site issues are originating at the Kansas City Center and higher management levels, not local management.  I believe the Service suffers when this happens. 

 

On Friday, November 19^th, IRS & NTEU exchanged initial proposals on the mid-term bargaining that is conducted half-way through the National Agreement.  More details on this as it develops, but I fear Bette Davis’ famous line will be apropos – “Hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

Lastly, it’s Thanksgiving this week.  I’m thankful that I get to work with the great employees here in Indiana.  In particular, I’m thankful for the Chapter 49 stewards who sacrifice to help their fellow employees.

 

CHANGE ADDRESSES LATELY?  IRS DOESN’T TELL NTEU ABOUT YOUR NEW ADDRESS.  CONTACT ANY STEWARD AND WE’LL GET YOUR ADDRESS CHANGED!

EXAM TOWN HALL

 

Long-time Chapter 49 steward Anne Brown attended a Town Hall Meeting conducted by Faris Fink November 10th.  Here are her impressions of what happened.  

 

Our new Area Director stated that he’s just ‘Faris’, not Area Director Mr. Fink or Mr. Fink.  He’s been Faris his whole career, and he still is with his newest position.

 

His answers to questions were forthright, though weren’t always what we wanted to hear. Some of the issues and answers addressed will come as no surprise.

 

CPEs-- there will not be any more large gatherings for CPE due to the cost, and he is in agreement that IVT’s are not the most effective method for training.  The projected date for Phase II of NRP rollout for 1120S examination is scheduled for October 2005, unless cancelled by the Commissioner.  The NRP training will be face to face.  The pilot NRP on 1120S and 1065 returns is now taking place in Detroit and St. Paul.

 

Faris plans to deliver better work, and feels we need to have more unstarted inventory in the group.  He acknowledged that the people and managers know more about their particular needs and trends for examinations.  He also said everyone needs to work every type of return. 

 

Speaking of returns, Fink responded to our return delivery problem (receiving only MACS prints in the case files).  He stated that we should give him a month, and we should be receiving the actual returns.

 

Promotional opportunities are all workload driven.  Don’t expect to see any Tax Compliance Officer Grade 11 jobs posted or Revenue Agent journeyman level as a grade 12.  Everything is driven by the budget.  Where is the agency going to get the biggest return from the position? 

 

Cases have changed geographic location due to span of control or office space for the employees.  The last few years have shown that we can ‘broker’ work, meaning that you don’t have to be geographically close to examine a taxpayer.  Having taxpayer representatives in California or Nevada is becoming more commonplace.  

 

We asked for support of Chapter 49’s former informal agreement to provide administrative leave for outside career enhancing CPE, at the employees’ expense for 100% of the first 24 hours and 50% of the second 16 hours.  His response was that the National Agreement allows for 16 hours and that is all he will allow.

Overall impressions of Faris were that he is upfront and appears to understand our needs to receive the actual tax returns and better work.  My expectations are that he will deliver, as it will be a win/win situation for management and employees.  Management will deliver their program; the employees will have the tools needed to do quality work.  Sounds like partnering may not be a thing of the past with our new Area Director Faris Fink.  

PAY, OUTSOURCING NEWS

 

Federal workers will see an average 3.5% raise in the first full pay period of calendar year 2005.  Note that is an average figure, meaning IRS workers in Indiana (except Merrillville which is tied to the Chicago locality) will likely see a little less than a 3.5% pay hike.  We’ll know for sure when the Office of Personnel Management releases the local pay tables.  At this time, we don’t know when that will happen.  Also, a bill designed to create a dental and vision benefit for federal employees was not enacted because lawmakers ran out of time to consider it.  NTEU will push that again next year. Meanwhile, despite a huge push by NTEU members and our first-class NTEU Legislative lobbying staff, we lost our effort to even the playing field in job competitions.  Current rules are tilted in favor of private contractors bidding for our jobs. Many in Congress agree with us on this issue, but the White House threatened to veto the entire budget bill if NTEU-supported provisions on contracting were included in the final bill.  We may have lost this fight but the battle is not over. We will continue to work with our friends from both parties to right this wrong.  We’ll keep you posted in this newsletter and at

www.nteu49.org.

 

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