GovernmentExecutive.com

The Labor Department announced last week that it has canceled a public-private competition for 328 administrative support positions that had been decided in favor of a contractor.

Last Tuesday's cancellation came in response to the enactment of an emergency supplemental spending bill (H.R. 2206) with language declaring all workers within Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration exempt from public-private competition, a department spokeswoman said. More than 20 percent of the workers affected worked at the mine safety agency.

According to rules governing public-private competitions, if the department wants to put the non-MSHA jobs up for bid, it will have to start a new competition. As of now, the agency has no plans to do so, the spokeswoman said.

GAP Solutions Inc. of Reston, Va., won the original competition in May, but had yet to sign a contract.

Union leaders who have fought the competition hailed the department's move as a victory. Eleanor Lauderdale, executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees chapter that represents the affected employees, said the cancellation was partly prompted by union opposition.

"We have been fighting this from the beginning," Lauderdale said. The union filed a grievance June 1 on the grounds that the competition targeted minority and older women, and organized a rally June 6 to protest the competition.

"Many times, these contractors will hire back federal workers to do the same jobs they did before," Lauderdale said. "But [the contractor] will offer a lower salary and fewer health and retirement benefits."

According to Lauderdale, the affected positions entailed a wide array of tasks not easily classifiable as administrative support jobs. "A lot of them were secretaries, but there were also jobs like 'EEO assistant' that were being outsourced," she said. Lauderdale said that although affected employees had been offered early retirement, none had accepted.

OMB tracks the status of agency competitions in annual competitive sourcing reports. The fiscal 2006 report showed that the Labor Department announced six competitions that year, representing the third-highest number out of the major agencies reviewed, behind the Defense Department (35) and NASA (26).

COMMENTS

• My job was on the list to be outsourced. I was appalled but not surprised and I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. In the past, the DOL has only came back with something else. If they fail one way, they come back with something else. Yet they are suppose to protect the American workers rights. Why continue wasting the taxpayers money and try working on maintaining companies or creating companies to employee the American workers. KathyE Posted July 16, 2007 9:13 AM
• I've been involved in a number of A-76's starting in the 90's, think Republican's were in office all thru the decade. The issue I was asked to look at was the data submitted by the civil service work force. I was amazed at the number of people working 8-10 days with no breaks or lunch hours. This was all going on when I was watching the work effort. What really suprised me was the offices were almost never staffed yet folks were working realllll hard dan ketter Posted July 11, 2007 5:21 PM
• While it should have not been so contentious a decision, Labor should be applauded. In most cases, A-76 competitions have been a complete waste of tax-payers' money and the entire process should be independently investigated. Beyond the waste, the rational person must ask the question - "when such a disruptive process is forced on often critical government functions, could the administration championing this process actually be trying to distract the regulatory and governing entities while more heinous political and criminal acts are occurring off stage?". I challenge all to ask themselves this question and answer honestly - considering recent events - i.e. GSA ethics and Hatch Act violations, FEMA, the DOJ Attorney political firings, the Libby sentence commutation. Don Posted July 11, 2007 9:48 AM