FederalDaily - December 4, 2007
APWU Applauds End of PTF Category
American Postal Workers Union (APWU) President William Burrus last week applauded the elimination
of the Clerk Craft part-time flexible employment (PTF) job category for larger postal facilities, and
noted that most PTF workers have been converted this year to fulltime employment. Under the current
collective bargaining agreement, the Postal Service agreed to eliminate the PTF category by Dec. 1.
The union had worked to eliminate the PTF category, which Burris said was fraught with hassles for
those employed as part-time workers. “Dec. 1, 2007, will be a historic day for postal labor,” Burrus
said in a bulletin on the union’s Web site. “Clerk Craft PTFs will disappear as a job category
in every postal installation of 200 work-years or more. This has been a long-standing objective of
postal employees.” The union said that according to the Postal Service, 440 facilities qualify
as 200 work-year facilities. The union said that in one of the largest such facilities, in Atlanta,
250 PTF workers were converted to full-time regular employees since the beginning of the year.
To see more, go to: www.apwu.org/news/nsb/2007/nsb14-071128-clerk_ptfs.htm.
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OMB Issues New Standards for Contracting Officer Technical Reps
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Nov. 26 issued new competency and training requirements
for employees who perform contract administration and technical functions. These employees—often
referred to as Contracting Officer Technical Representatives (COTR)—support critical acquisition
management activities, OMB said in a statement. OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)
issued a memorandum to chief acquisition officers delineating the requirements, which are mandatory
for all civilian agencies and include a minimum of 40 hours of training. The memo lists 24 key skills,
ranging from acquisition-specific ones—such as defining and communicating government requirements—to
broader traits like flexibility and integrity. The required COTR training is available through the
Federal Acquisition Institute or the Defense Acquisition University, but OMB noted it can also be completed
through agency- or commercially-run courses or universities. “The COTR is the contracting officer’s
right-hand resource for ensuring that contractors are meeting contract requirements in support of our
mission objectives,” OFPP Administrator Paul Denett said. To see more, go to: www.whitehouse.gov/omb/pubpress/2007/112607_faw.html.
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TRICARE Beneficiaries Switching to Mail Order Prescriptions
DoD reported that about 20,000 TRICARE beneficiaries so far have switched from getting their prescriptions
filled at retail pharmacies to the TRICARE Mail Order Pharmacy (TMOP) program using TRICARE's two-month-old
Member Choice Center. An individual beneficiary’s savings through TMOP range from $24
a year for each regular formulary generic drug to as much as $176 a year for each non-formulary brand-name
drug, DoD said in a Nov. 29 statement. DoD projects saving approximately $6.9 million on the 39,500
prescriptions converted so far from retail to TMOP—and could save up to $24 million a year with
just a 1 percent shift of prescriptions from retail to mail order. “Beneficiaries are saving
time in addition to money,” said Army Maj. Gen. Elder Granger, deputy director, TRICARE Management
Activity. “TMOP offers the convenience of ordering and receiving prescriptions without leaving
home.” To see more, go to: www.tricare.mil/pressroom/news.aspx?fid=348.
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