Senior execs offer compromise on civil service protections

In an Aug. 19 letter to President Bush, the Senior Executives Association recommended that the proposed Department of Homeland Security retain whistleblower protections, renegotiate collective bargaining agreements with labor unions, and adopt performance review boards.

A bill to create the new department passed in the House last month, but stalled in the Senate over civil service protections. The president wants the new department's secretary to have managerial flexibility on issues such as job assignments, pay rates and union representation. "What we are suggesting, we think, makes a lot of sense in terms of a solution to the personnel issues that surround the legislation," SEA President Carol Bonosaro told Government Executive Thursday. SEA represents 7,000 career senior executives in the federal government. In the Aug. 19 letter, Bonosaro and SEA General Counsel Jerry Shaw offered four suggestions to "balance the interests of all those weighing in on the debate over flexibility." SEA recommended that the new department include the provisions of a federal human capital bill (S. 1603) which would revise federal employee recruitment, relocation, and retention bonus provisions, expand criteria for providing employees with academic training and authorize agencies to pay for employee certifications. Among its other provisions, the letter also urged the administration to keep the Senior Executive Service intact in the new department and maintain appeal rights under the Merit System Protection Board. "The administration is saying there are provisions in these agreements that truly get in the way of meeting the mission of the department," Bonosaro said. "Let's sunset the agreements and negotiate new ones that meet the needs of the department." SEA also suggested the new department use pay banding and adopt performance review boards to ensure that employees are paid based on their performance. National Treasury Union Employees President Colleen Kelley, whose organization represents 155,000 federal employees, said she is concerned about this provision. "I don't see many actions taken against executives," Kelley said. "I do, however, hear a lot of interest in taking actions against front-line employees. I would really need a lot more information to be convinced that an internal self-contained process would provide due process and a fair hearing to employees." Kelley was also skeptical about the plan to renegotiate collective bargaining agreements within a year of the department's creation. "The idea of forging a new relationship is something we are interested in doing, but I think a one-year sunset is not practical because the current legislation as it is drafted gives a 12-month period for all agencies and employees to all move to the new department," Kelley said. "I have to believe that it's going to take some time to get them all over there. Anybody involved in a reorganization [effort] knows it doesn't just happen with the stroke of a pen." But Kelley said that many of SEA's recommendations coincide with what her organization would like to see included in the homeland security legislation. "I think it's interesting that there are a number of pieces where the senior executives agree with the unions in what needs to be done," Kelley said. "The administration is perhaps a little out of step with front-line employees and managers." Officials from the American Federation of Government Employees were unavailable to comment on the recommendations.