9/22/09: NTEU Chapter 293 and the SEC today jointly announced that scores of Corp Fin employees will receive their career ladder promotions to Grade 14 next month.

The resolution of this issue began a few weeks back, when Chapter 293 submitted an information request to the agency seeking to identify all current non-management employees at the agency who had not received a promotion to the next grade on their career ladder for more than one year. An employee’s “career ladder” is a series of positions of increasing difficulty in the same line of work through which he or she may progress from entry level to the full performance level at the highest grade. The Union’s request for information identified more than 90 employees in the Division of Corporation Finance who have been in Grade 13 for a year or more without receiving a promotion to Grade 14.

This data indicates that Corp Fin denies career ladder promotions for more than a year to attorneys and accountants at rate of about ten times higher than any other part of the agency. Only 2.8% of the attorneys and accountants in all other offices and divisions have been similarly denied a career ladder promotion but in Corp Fin the rate is about 27%.

Article 15 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the SEC and the Union states the general principle that, “While promotions within career-ladders are neither automatic nor mandatory, career advancement is the intent and expectation in the career-ladder system.” Clearly, however, this intent and expectation of the systemwas not being realized for many employees in Corp Fin.  

For that reason, the Union brought this state of affairs to the attention of management to seek a resolution. Much to the credit of Corp Fin’s new leadership, within a short period of time Corp Fin agreed to promote almost all of these employees to Grade 14 during the month of October 2009. 

"I am very pleased that Corp Fin management was willing to step up to the plate to rectify this situation amicably without the need for an unpleasant confrontation," NTEU Chapter 293 President Greg Gilman noted this afternoon. "In particular, the Union applauds the leadership of Meredith Cross, the Division's new Director. This is a positive step towards working cooperatively together when a new labor-management partnership executive order is signed by the President."