Volume III, Issue 2 (January 2009)

Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Greg Gilman. The current economic crisis has led to increasing calls for fundamental changes to the financial regulatory structure of our nation.

The current economic crisis has led to increasing calls for fundamental changes to the financial regulatory structure of our nation. Such changes could have a profound impact upon the Securities and Exchange Commission and how it operates. NTEU leadership is currently working to ensure that SEC employee rights and benefits will be protected as these plans unfold in Washington. Union leaders have reached out to incoming SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, and members of the Obama transition team to discuss SEC issues.

President-Elect Obama recently stated during an interview on CNBC that he plans “a substantial overhaul” of financial regulation, including “better enforcement, better oversight, better disclosure, increased transparency.” He went on to say that, “We’re going to have to look at this alphabet soup of agencies and figure out how do we get them to work together more effectively. We’ve got to stop splintering functions in such a way that capital in one form is treated one way and capital in another form is treated another way, because these days in global financial markets, they’re all fungible.”

Colleen Kelley

Early this month, NTEU National President Colleen Kelley welcomed recognition by key House members that structural issues involving both the SEC and more broadly the nation’s financial regulatory system played a major role in the proliferation of a long-running financial scheme.

In NTEU's latest national victory for SEC employees, in December a federal Arbitrator ruled that all Securities Compliance Examiners in grades 11, 12 and 13 are now eligible to receive higher pay rates for their overtime work. Under the Arbitrator's decision, these employees are also eligible for back pay and damages. The SEC has elected not to appeal this decision to the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The agency has commenced the process of re-classifying affected employees to FLSA non-exempt status, but is not yet certain when this process will be completed.

The first round of settlement payments to SEC employees under the NTEU-negotiated merit pay settlement are scheduled to occur by February 18, 2009. African-American bargaining unit employees in grades 8 and above, and all bargaining unit employees aged 40 or older, who worked at the SEC during the period from 2003 to 2007, will receive these distributions under the settlement. To be eligible, an employee must have been a member of the bargaining unit in October of 2008, when the settlement agreement was signed.

Chapter 293 President Greg Gilman, who lives in Exeter, New Hampshire, is the quintessential New Englander: his family has held season tickets for the New England Patriots since 1962 (“through the lean years,” as Greg points out); one of his ancestors was actually convicted of witchcraft lo’ so many years ago in Andover, Massachusetts; and he is the only person I’ve ever known who actually uses the adjective “wicked” in a positive way (as in “the Pats are a wicked good football team!”).

Over the past seven years, some SEC managers and employees have suffered from a fundamental misconception regarding how it was that Congress passed Pay Parity, leading to substantially higher compensation levels for SEC employees. According to their version of events, although NTEU provided some small assistance in the process, the “heavy lifting” was done by SEC management. This is revisionist history. It is important to understand what really happened so that you will appreciate the union’s vital role at the SEC.