Patent workers to get 10 percent pay raise

Thousands of Patent and Trademark Office employees will get pay raises of about 9.8 percent this weekend, the head of one of the agency's labor unions said Thursday. Ronald Stern, president of the Patent Office Professional Association, told GovExec.com that the Office of Personnel Management on Thursday approved new special salary rates for 3,500 patent workers and supervisors at the GS-5 through GS-15 levels. Some employees' raises will be slightly higher or slightly lower than 9.8 percent. "This is absolutely essential for recruitment and retention," Stern said. Patent workers and supervisors, he noted, "just have fantastic opportunities" in the private sector. Stern and former PTO Director Todd Dickinson signed an agreement in January in which the agency agreed to seek special pay authority from OPM. In return, patent workers had to agree to switch from the traditional paper-based file system to an electronic version. Some patent examiners prefer working with paper.

"I'm sure this is not a universally accepted matter," Stern said. "But we are committed to going in that direction." The new pay rates will take effect on Sunday, with the beginning of the next pay period. Last September, members of the Patent Office Professional Association rejected the PTO's offer of a pay raise because of the terms of the agency's offer. The two sides returned to the negotiating table, ironed out their differences and approved a new agreement in January. OPM then reviewed PTO's request for new special pay rates for the patent employees, asking for additional justification for the new rates in February. "There was a book written to justify the pay rates," Stern said. Officials at the PTO could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.