Unions seek to force DHS to keep negotiating on personnel rules

The National Treasury Employees Union wants congressional leaders to put pressure on Homeland Security Department managers to continue bargaining with union officials over the structure of the department's new personnel system.

The request came in a letter sent just days after NTEU and the American Federation of Government Employees charged that DHS management short-circuited a congressionally mandated "meet-and-confer" period designed to mediate differences between union and management on a DHS-proposed design for the new system.

DHS officials responded that they had already extended the meet-and-confer period beyond its originally scheduled end date.

The letter was addressed to 12 Republican and Democratic leaders, including Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins, D-Maine, and committee ranking member Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Last February, following a nearly year-long process of consultation with employee unions, Homeland Security and Office of Personnel Management officials released a set of proposals for the new personnel system, which will replace the General Schedule with a pay-for-performance system at DHS.

Under the proposal, DHS personnel would be organized into occupational pay clusters focused around similar jobs. Within the clusters, employees would be categorized into one of four pay bands: entry level, full-performance, senior expert and first-level supervisor. No pay raise would be granted to employees who failed to score "fully successful" or better on their performance reviews.

DHS also would no longer negotiate with its unions on issues deemed to be core management rights, such as the deployment of personnel, assignment of work and the use of new technology. The proposal would speed up negotiations on other issues by setting a 30-day limit on all mid-term bargaining and a 60-day deadline for term agreements.

The proposed rules also would quicken and simplify the system for employee disciplinary appeals. Currently, employees can be disciplined under two separate systems with different rules, one for poor performance and one for misconduct. An employee can appeal disciplinary action to the Merit Systems Protection Board, a separate federal agency with judges around the country who hear cases and a three-member board in Washington that hears appeals.

Under the proposed changes, Homeland Security would consolidate the two disciplinary systems, and would ask MSPB to streamline its rules for hearing the cases. In the event of poor performance, managers only would have to provide a 20-day window for an employee to improve.

In addition, MSPB no longer would have the opportunity to reduce the agency's penalty decision. An MSPB judge could still dismiss a case, but the judge could not uphold the decision and also reduce the penalty, under the proposal.

Finally, some misconduct cases, such as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement inspector taking a bribe, would trigger mandatory removal. In those cases, an internal agency panel would review the facts. Only the Homeland Security secretary would have the authority to overturn that panel's decision. MSPB would play no role in these cases.

Congress gave DHS authority to create the new personnel system when the department was created in 2002. It will eventually affect 110,000 DHS employees. About 70,000 will be exempted from the system, including uniformed military personnel, administrative law judges and Transportation Security Administration personnel, whose rules are governed by separate laws.

After the management proposal was released, union officials blasted it and pledged to lobby for changes during the meet-and-confer period. In the letter to congressional leaders, NTEU President Colleen Kelley writes: "If management moves forward with the proposed personnel changes, as they were announced earlier this year, it will make a true reversal of employee rights and limit our members' ability to substantially contribute to the vital mission of the department."

Both AFGE and NTEU argue that the changes would undermine civil service protections, and give too much power to managers in setting employee duties and pay rates, and in disciplining workers.

In the letter, Kelley alleged that DHS management had walked away from the negotiating table even though the two sides were making progress with the help of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. "DHS management is refusing to come back to the table and finish the discussions," Kelley writes.

DHS officials said that the meet-and-confer period was extended beyond its scheduled 30 days, and that the negotiations should now move to their next stage, where OPM Director Kay Coles James and DHS Secretary Tom Ridge will negotiate directly with union leaders.