Federal Daily - July 2, 2010

Some Temp Workers Shortchanged on Benefits, Witnesses Say

Federal hiring practices continued to take center stage this week as retired workers and employee groups told lawmakers that agency overuse of temporary and seasonal hiring authorities unfairly reduces the benefits available to many federal workers hired as non-permanent employees.
 
In a June 30 hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform federal workforce subcommittee, witnesses told lawmakers that employees with temporary status are cut out of many benefits that are provided to permanent federal workers, such as enrollment in the Federal Employees Retirement System, the right to family and medical leave, and leave for military service.

In some cases, the temporary status attached to a worker may be in name only, witnesses said. For example, Patricia Barts, a retired IRS employee, said she remained in temporary status for 16 years until she was finally reclassified as a permanent employee. The long-running temporary classification reduced the annuity she now receives in retirement, she testified.

“I enjoyed working for the agency and always felt respected by my superiors.” Barts said. “Still, as a matter of equity, I believe I have been unfairly denied benefits which I should have been able to access.”

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley said the union is concerned that agencies may abuse these employment authorities despite regulations that prohibit them from using temporary status to avoid the costs of employee benefits, extend the probationary period or avoid competitive hiring.

“While temporary employment status can be useful to an agency when properly applied, it is also a status that lends itself to abuse and can be an unfair working condition for an employee,” Kelley said.

The government employs about 180,000 temporary employees, representing 10 percent of the federal civilian workforce, said panel Chairman Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. “Although reforms have been made, we must sharpen our regulations and oversight to lessen any abuses that may be occurring,” Lynch aid in a statement before the hearing.

To see more, go to: www.narfe.org/departments/home/articles.cfm?ID=2116, www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1574 or http://tinyurl.com/2atrpzt (hearing).

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NARFE Urges Commission to Maintain Federal Worker Benefits

The head of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association urged a federal deficit commission to avoid cutting federal retirement and health benefits as it looks at ways to reduce the national debt.

NARFE President Margaret L. Baptiste testified June 30 before the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a bipartisan panel looking at ways to reduce the federal deficit. Baptiste noted that while cutting entitlement spending is a focus of the group, federal worker pay and benefits are different from other entitlement programs.

“There is one significant difference,” Baptiste said. “Civil service retirement and health benefits are earned by employees, and designed to attract and retain a skilled workforce. They are not modeled on social insurance, health-based or means-tested.”

More than 2.3 million retirees and survivors depend on either the Civil Service Retirement System or the Federal Employees Retirement System for retirement income. “The federal service has always been a program of shared costs between the agency and the worker. Regrettably, the public is often misinformed—believing federal employees get ‘free’ or overly generous benefits,” Baptiste told commission members.

The commission is scheduled to make its recommendations in December.

To see more, go to: www.narfe.org/departments/home/articles.cfm?ID=2115.

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