Federal Daily - April 16, 2008

AFGE Offers Congressional Prison Tours

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) launched a “Take Your Lawmaker to Prison” campaign in an effort to publicize prisoner overcrowding and low staffing levels within the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The initiative is coordinated by AFGE’s Council of Prison Locals, which represents federal correctional officers and other federal employees who work at BOP institutions. Rather than authorize more privately run prisons, AFGE is urging lawmakers to endorse a $500 million increase in Fiscal Year 2009 BOP funding to boost staffing levels. To win congressional support for the increase, AFGE is taking lawmakers on tours to see conditions at BOP facilities, which hold more than 200,000 inmates—up 38 percent, from 145,000 in 2000. Despite the growth in numbers of inmates, the BOP system currently is staffed at only an 89 percent level, AFGE said in an April 14 statement. “AFGE believes that this understaffing of correctional officers at BOP institutions is resulting in a significant increase in prison inmate assaults against correctional staff and other prison inmates,” the union said. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/index.cfm?page=BureauofPrisons&Fuse=Content&ContentID=1512. 

:: Back to Top ::

GSA OKs Updated Telework Policy

The General Services Administration (GSA) on April 14 announced a new telework policy that will help the agency meet its goal of having 50 percent of its eligible workforce teleworking one or more days a week by 2010. The new policy, announced by GSA Administrator Lurita Doan, emphasizes human capital management, information technology components and employee telework agreements.  In addition, GSA said a fund has been established to absorb the costs for employees wishing to use alternative worksites. “The telework seeds are taking root across GSA and flourishing,” Doan said. We hope our results will convince our sister agencies to move forward as well.” To see more, go to: www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?pageTypeId=8199&channelId=-13259&P=&contentId=24362&contentType=GSA_BASIC.

:: Back to Top ::

NTEU Opposes Carfine Nomination to IRS Board

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) on April 14 announced that it was opposed to President Bush’s nomination of Kenneth Carfine, a Treasury Department executive, to the employee representative seat on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Oversight Board. Carfine serves as the department’s fiscal assistant secretary, a position he was appointed to on March 15, 2007. The nine-member oversight board, which was established in the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (RRA), plays a significant role in reviewing the operations, policies and budget of the agency. NTEU President Colleen Kelley said the statute that governs board appointments mandates that the board employee representative be drawn from the agency’s rank-and-file. “IRS employees deserve a meaningful voice on this influential public-private body,” Kelley said. “I am unaware of any employee representation role that Mr. Carfine has ever played at the IRS.” To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1247.  

:: Back to Top ::