Summer 2008:

More than half of the corporations in the U.S. currently provide some form of paid parental leave benefit to their employees. Perhaps it is for that reason that people are often surprised to learn that federal employees receive no paid time off to care for their newborn infants or recently adopted children. Instead, they are only permitted to take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) of 1993, and then use sick leave or annual leave, if available, to continue to be paid while they are out of the office. It is time to provide a paid parental leave benefit to federal employees.

May 2008:

In March and April, the new Expanded Telework Trial Program went into effect. Under this new program, which resulted from NTEU’s recent Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations, employees who have in the past participated in recurring telework arrangements at the SEC will be working from home for 3, 4 and in some cases 5 days per week. This program represents a major step forward for the continued expansion of telework opportunities at the SEC. Indeed, many federal agencies have not seen this type of forward progress on telework in recent years.

March 2008:

In February, during Congressional testimony on federal pay for performance systems, the SEC announced its commitment to temporarily separate its performance management system from its much-maligned merit pay system while the agency works with NTEU on implementation of a new performance management system.

January 2008:

Given the recent enactment of the 2008 3.5% pay raise, now is good time to consider part of the representation that your union dues make possible every year– NTEU’s tireless lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill to bring you the best pay raises possible.

Indeed, in every year but one since 2002, NTEU’s efforts led directly to higher average raises than those that were originally proposed by the administration:

• 2002: 3.6% increased to 4.6%

November 2007:

With the commencement of a new fiscal year at the SEC, I wanted to take a moment to reflect upon Chapter 293’s accomplishments over the past year, which has been a good one for the union and the SEC employees it represents.

10/25/07: This afternoon, the membership of NTEU Chapter 293 voted almost unanimously to ratify the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The final vote result, which was certified by NTEU Counsel Michael Piacsek, was 99.8% in favor of the new contract. We appreciate this strong showing of support from our members across the country.

I would like to thank the other members of Chapter 293's negotiating team, Dean Suehiro, Netta Williams, Katie Nix and Veronica Lewis (pictured here), for all of their hard work on this CBA. The negotiations, which spanned over the past eighteen months, were difficult at times -- but these volunteers hung in to the end, always keeping their eye upon what was in the best interest of all of the bargaining unit employees at the SEC. I am personally very grateful to each of them for their strong commitment to all of you. While employees in other agencies have seen their rights and benefits chipped away, we have maintained a strong contract and enhanced it with substantial improvements.

The CBA will now go to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox for agency head review. He will have thirty days to decide whether to execute the final ratified agreement. We anticipate that he will do so, particularly given the strong support for this contract among SEC employees in every office in the nation.

June 2007:

Increasing the SEC’s matching contributions to its employees’ retirement savings accounts would not only offer a significant benefit to SEC employees and their families, but it would also substantially strengthen the agency by helping it to achieve one of the primary goals of the 2002 Pay Parity legislation. NTEU is continuing to push for such an increase. However, SEC senior management so far has failed to assist the union with respect to this important issue, despite the fact that, during last year’s compensation negotiations with the union, the SEC included an increased match in its final offer, which was included in the Federal Service Impasses Panel’s (FSIP) final order on compensation.

April 2007:

SEC employees and managers alike have a strong interest in ensuring that the SEC succeeds in its mission of regulating and protecting the financial markets of the United States. For that reason, SEC management and SEC employees’ union representatives both have a mutual stake in working cooperatively to enhance the agency’s effectiveness and efficiency, increase employee morale, and reduce employment-related disputes. Constructing an effective labor-management relationship at the agency is a two-way street. It requires both management and union leaders to be honest with one another, to respect their different interests, and to build upon their common interests. As NTEU President Colleen Kelley has noted in the past: “Working together in partnership allows agency management and federal employees to work together to solve problems that hinder effective delivery of federal services.” Unfortunately, however, the SEC has not always worked to build such a relationship with NTEU.

February 2007:

As previously reported on www.secunion.org, the Federal Service Impasses Panel (“FSIP”) entered an order in October regarding employee compensation issues at the SEC. That order requires, among other things, that future merit pay increases at the SEC must be tied to employee ratings under a new five-level performance evaluation system, which will be redesigned based upon the recommendations of a joint labor-management committee formed for that purpose. The joint committee’s work will be moving forward in the coming weeks, and its recommendations will likely have a substantial impact upon the efficacy of the performance-based pay system at the agency.