FederalDaily - April 17, 2007

USPS to Convert Personnel Files to Electronic Format

The Postal Service announced it is launching a program to convert all paper personnel folders to electronic folders. The program, which USPS said will “transform the way employee information is stored, retained and retrieved,” ultimately will give postal employees 24-hour access to their personnel folders. The Postal Service has given the contract for the transformation to Sourcecorp BPS, Inc., which will convert the files into electronic format as part of the Electronic Official Personnel Folder program. Paper records now maintained in postal facilities throughout the country will be scanned and maintained in a secure central database. Anthony Vegliante, USPS chief human resources officer and executive vice president, called the security of employee records “a top priority.” For more information, go to: www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2007/pr07_028.htm.

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Union to Tell House: DHS Personnel System a ‘Failure’

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), announced that she will inform a key House subcommittee that the union remains opposed to continuing attempts by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop new personnel rules. “In critical ways, the personnel system established by the Homeland Security Act and subsequent regulations issued by DHS have been nothing but failures,” Kelley said of the rules, many of which DHS plans to impose despite union opposition and unfavorable federal court action blocking parts of the new scheme. “The law and these regulations effectively gut employee due process rights, putting in serious jeopardy the agency’s ability to recruit and retain a capable workforce,” she added. On Thursday, April 19, Kelley is scheduled to testify on the matter before members of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Integration and Oversight. NTEU represents 150,000 federal employees, including 15,000 at the Customs and Border Protection unit of DHS. For more, go to www.nteu.org.

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Senators Press for Better Diagnosis of Brain Injuries in Returning Troops

Two senators are pushing for better testing to properly diagnose Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in servicemembers injured in combat. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine—who along with Hillary Clinton. D-N.Y., have cosponsored a bill to improve the screening and diagnosis of TBI—raised the issue again during a joint hearing held by the Senate Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committees to examine disparities in military disability rating system. Collins said her concern over misdiagnosis of TBI grew after she met with a Maine neurologist who had diagnosed a soldier who had served in Iraq with TBI—but who had been misdiagnosed earlier with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Responding to questioning, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David S. C. Chu, said the military is in the process of improving its screening for TBI and is working to revise post deployment exams. The senators co-authored a bill that would authorize $3.8 million for DoD to implement a computer-based assessment protocol to measure cognitive functioning—both before and after deployment—to facilitate accurate diagnosis and treatment of mild and moderate TBI. For more, go to:
http://collins.senate.gov/public/continue.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&Content
Record_id=e7b385f1-802a-23ad-4ae2-9c8775e21252&Region_id=&Issue_id=

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