NTEU Wins Multi-Million Dollar Awards Settlement
NTEU has secured a $10 million settlement on behalf of thousands of CBP employees, ending a five-year battle over the agency's unilateral termination of the negotiated awards program.
The settlement originally stems from a grievance NTEU filed following CBP’s 2005 cancellation of a union-negotiated awards program. Pay outs ranging from $454 to $2,419 will be provided to legacy Customs employees for fiscal years 2005 through 2009.
For eight successful years, before CBP unilaterally terminated the program, employees had overwhelmingly supported the joint awards program because they perceived it as fair, credible and transparent. The program gave employees input into who received awards, which helped to ensure that performance was rewarded based upon merit and not favoritism.
CBP will implement the settlement agreement within 60 days and provide to every covered employee half of the average award paid to bargaining unit employees for each of the impacted years if the employee did not receive an award for that year. Employees will receive payments no later than May 8.
Because they were added to NTEU's bargaining unit after the original grievance was filed, certain employees, such as legacy Immigration and Agriculture employees or those workers hired after July 24, 2004, are not covered by the settlement. The contracts former Immigration and Agriculture employees were working under at the time did not include guaranteed performance awards as the NTEU-Customs contract did.
Message from the President |
In an absolutely outrageous and unilateral decision, CBP has said it is immediately ending the Foreign Language Award Program (FLAP). I want you to know that NTEU is moving promptly to take all possible steps—contractually, legally, with Congress and with senior leaders of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—to reverse this foolish and unfair decision.
The NTEU-negotiated FLAP program has been an unqualified success since fiscal year 1997, not just for the employees who use a foreign language in the course of their work, but for the travelers who are aided by having someone at a port of entry who speaks their language, and for the smooth functioning of the agency’s mission. I can hardly imagine a worse decision impacting a vital program on the front lines of our nation’s ports of entry. Further, management has taken this action with respect to a negotiated program on its own and with no discussion with NTEU. More
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The most pressing need facing TSA is the inadequate pay received by the frontline employees charged with our nation’s aviation security, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley told a House subcommittee.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) are paid some $1,700 per year less than their counterparts covered by the General Schedule pay system, Kelley told the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee in submitted testimony. When TSA was established in late 2001, it was given wide-ranging personnel latitude, including the right to establish its own pay system.
“We believe that upgrading TSO pay to reflect their mission-critical duties would lead to a distinct improvement in the agency’s ability to recruit and retain a highly-skilled and professional workforce,” Kelley said. More
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Staffing Improvements for TSA, CBP
The White House budget proposal for the coming fiscal year calling for additional staffing at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reflects welcome and broad understanding of the need to ensure that homeland security agencies have adequate personnel.
The White House proposal includes a call for 2,000 additional Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) at TSA. Increased TSA staffing, in fact, is part of NTEU’s five-point plan for improving working conditions for TSOs, including higher pay—they presently are among the lowest paid federal workers—as well as fair scheduling, improvements in training and recertification and whistleblower rights by statute.
“The White House proposals for additional staffing for TSA and CBP reflect the reality of today’s dangerous world, and are wise investments in our nation’s security,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley.
For CBP, the White House is asking for sufficient funds for 300 new CBP Officers for passenger and cargo screening at ports; additional intelligence officers; and expanded pre-screening efforts operations at foreign ports. “That would be a start on meeting CBP staffing needs,” Kelley said. More