Federal Daily - February 23, 2009

AFGE Calls NSPS Payout Data ‘Meaningless’

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) on Feb. 19 criticized the usefulness of the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) payout data released last week by DoD. According to DoD, 98 percent of NSPS employees received wage increases under the 2009 payouts, and the system paid out an average 8.35 percent increase in raises and bonuses for NSPS employees. But AFGE called such average numbers “meaningless” when describing NSPS rates, and said the data do not describe how the raises and bonuses were distributed, or whether all workers with the same performance ratings got the same sized raises. “We don’t know whether there is any logic or fairness to the distribution,” said Jacque Simon, AFGE public policy director. “For example, were women, minorities, older workers, and workers in lower-banded positions given smaller raises than those in other demographic groups?” Simon said it also is misguided to compare NSPS to General Schedule (GS) raises, and that the amount of money used to finance the NSPS raises and bonuses this year is the same amount that would have funded GS locality pay, GS Employment Cost Index (ECI) raises, GS step increases, and GS bonuses for the employees now under NSPS. “If anybody has done better under NSPS than they would have with GS, it is only because a coworker has done worse,” Simon said. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=946.

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NATCA Urges FAA to Abandon Plans to Consolidate Forecasters

Air traffic controllers and airport meteorologists are urging the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to abandon plans to consolidate on-site weather forecasting into two facilities in Kansas City, Mo., and College Park, Md., said the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). NATCA and the National Weather Service Employees Organization are both opposed to the change, NATCA said on Feb. 19. The cost-cutting plan would dismantle the current system in which on-site weather forecasters are stationed at each of FAA’s 21 centers. The system has been in place since 1978. NATCA said removing on-site weather forecasters could pose safety problems for air traffic control operations when hazardous weather events such as tornadoes or snow storms arise. “The FAA thinking that interacting with a meteorologist in Kansas City via instant messaging and video chatting will be a suitable substitute for the hands-on problem solving that human interaction provides would be comical if the safety of the flying public wasn’t involved,” said NATCA Chicago Center Facility Representative Jeff Richards. Controllers at Chicago Center are responsible for the traffic going into, through and out of parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. To see more, go to: www.natca.org/mediacenter/press-release-detail.aspx?id=585.

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SSA Web Site Tops e-Government Customer Rankings

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) online services ranked the highest for customer service of all federal government Web sites surveyed, according to the latest e-Government Satisfaction Index released earlier this month. The Index, which is administered by ForeSee Results in conjunction with the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), also gave three of SSA’s applications the highest scores in government. While the federal government’s overall average score is 74 out of 100, SSA’s overall score was 79, the highest. The highest-scoring applications were SSA’s Retirement Estimator (www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator), which scored an 89, andthe online retirement application (www.socialsecurity.gov/applyonline) and online Medicare Extra Help application, which each scored 87. “We are committed to providing the best online services in government, and these accolades are proof that the public appreciates our efforts,” said Michael Astrue, SSA commissioner. To see more, go to: www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/onlineservices-accolades-pr.htm.

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