Federal Daily - August 7, 2008

Commission Recommends New Military Retirement System

The second volume of the Tenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC), released Aug. 5, recommends that DoD should experiment with a defined benefit retirement plan that would provide post-service payments to a broader range of veterans. The review commission convened by DoD found that although the military retirement benefit is a major component of military compensation, the vast majority of servicemembers never receive a retirement payment. Less than 15 percent of enlisted personnel and 47 percent of officers become eligible for the military retirement benefit, according to DoD figures. The panel recommended DoD look at a defined benefit plan providing retirement pay equal to 2.5 percent of high-3 annual basic pay multiplied by the number of years of service. The benefit would be payable at age 57 for those with 20 years of service, and at 60 for those with fewer than 20 years. The proposed plan would vest at 10 years. Members who opted to receive the defined benefit immediately upon retirement would receive a reduced benefit. “Vesting the retirement benefit at 10 years of service would substantially expand the number of personnel eligible for a retirement benefit, resulting in a more equitable system,” the report said. The commission also issued recommendations for TRICARE, recruiting and retention incentives for health care professionals and quality of life issues. For health care professionals, the commission suggested that DoD increase benefits for the Health Professions Scholarship, improve active-duty nurse recruiting by expanding the market and adding educational opportunities. To see more, go to: www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12114.

:: Back to Top ::

Union Seeks Assurances on Passport Examiners

The union representing Passport Agency workers is seeking assurances from the State Department that it will assign U.S. passport application processing duties only to duly-sworn federal workers and not to contract employees. The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) last week asked the State Department to reconfirm its commitment that such work is “inherently governmental,” or solely a function of the government and its employees. NFFE Local 1998 President Colin Walle noted that the Department of State failed to explicitly include the acceptance and verification duty of Passport Agents as inherently governmental in its recent 2007 Federal Activities Inventory Review Act report, which lists the commercial and inherently governmental functions that are currently being performed by federal employees. “It appears that the State Department may be laying the groundwork to permanently privatize the passport function,” said Walle. In the past, the State Department recognized that the agent function should only be performed by government workers, said Walle. The department reversed this policy last year in the face of a massive applications backlog created largely by the department’s own inadequate planning, said Walle. To see more, go to: www.nffe.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/6010.

:: Back to Top ::

Federal Judge Rules in Favor of NATCA on Overtime

A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) violated the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by maintaining comp time and credit hours programs for employees instead of paying them time-and-a-half overtime. The ruling last week by U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Hewitt came on an FLSA lawsuit brought by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). Hewitt rejected the government’s claims that the programs were lawful under a new personnel management system authorized by Congress in 1996. Following this decision, the case moves into a new stage for the calculation of the dollar amount of actual damages owed to the 7,438 NATCA members who joined the lawsuit against FAA. There also remain a number of additional issues still to be resolved, such as whether the recovery period for the plaintiffs will run back two or three years from the date they joined the lawsuit, and the compensability of pre- and post-shift activities performed by the plaintiffs, the union said in a statement. “This decision is a resounding victory for NATCA,” said NATCA President Patrick Forrey. “The court’s decision that our members are due financial compensation is an affirmation that the FAA cannot railroad everything past NATCA without any oversight or accountability of federal laws, rules and regulations.” To see more, go to: www.natca.org/rss/suit-overtime-080208.aspx.

:: Back to Top ::