Federal union leaders have asked the Clinton Administration to consider proposing 6 percent pay raises for federal workers in 1999 and 2000, far bigger increases than employees have received in recent years.
Four labor organizations Wednesday released a letter sent to Office of Personnel Management Director Janice Lachance last month that also urges the Clinton administration to "address the heretofore unaddressed real and/or imagined pay setting methodology."
"The issue of setting appropriate federal employee pay has a long, tortuous history," the letter said.
This year, Clinton approved an average 2.8 percent pay raise for federal employees and senior executives. The raise is divided between a 2.3 percent base pay increase and locality pay raises that average 0.5 percent.
In the letter, however, the unions ask the administration to propose a locality adjustment of no less than 2.88 percent in 1999 and 2000. This average locality adjustment plus a base pay increase based on the Employment Cost index, already calculated at 3.1 percent, would equal a total average pay raise of 5.98 percent.
In exchange for the hefty pay increase, union officials said they will work with the administration to address its concerns about the 1990 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, which was designed to bring federal salaries more in line with private sector pay. Administration officials have said they believe the salary-setting emchanism in the law overstates the gap between federal and non-federal pay.
"Adopting the approach we suggest would give recognition to the fact that federal employees are performing more agency missions with 300,000 fewer employees in the context of terrorist attacks, lockouts, layoffs and benefit cuts," the letter said. "They have contributed more than any other group to the success of this administration. They deserve to be paid appropriately for their work."
Lachance told The Washington Post that she welcomed the "union's willingness to work with the administration."
"We are confident that a fair and equitable situation will be found," she said.
The letter was signed by National Treasury Employees Union President Robert Tobias; American Federation of Government Employees National President Bobby Harnage; AFL-CIO Public Employees Department Secretary/Treasurer John Leyden; and Al Schmidt, acting president of the National Federation of Federal Employees.
Union lobbyists hope to plead their case with Vice President Al Gore before the administration finishes its fiscal 1999 budget in the next few days.
NEXT STORY: Agency Sell-Off Mulled