Justice Department Cleaners Win 15 Percent Raise

By Joe Davidson
Friday, October 10, 2008

If you thought the 3.9 percent raise federal employees will receive next year is a decent increase these days, imagine how happy they would be with the 15 percent boost phased in over three years that workers who clean the Justice Department's headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue NW started getting Saturday. Under the contract, cleaners who earned $15.51 an hour will see that rise to $17.94 by the end of the contract, according to Local 323BJ of the Service Employees International Union. The cleaners are outside contractors employed by Makro Services.

In addition to the pay raise, the union won a 150 percent increase in employer contributions to their pension plan and improved health-care benefits. The agreement covers 23 full-time and 27 part-time workers.

A Landslide Election

Richard N. Brown was reelected national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees with 86 percent of the vote at the union's convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday. "It has truly been a privilege to serve the members of NFFE for the last 10 years," Brown said. "I am honored to be given the opportunity to do so for another four." William Dougan was reelected to his second term as national secretary/treasurer.

Established in 1917, NFFE says it's the oldest union of federal civil servants, representing 100,000 employees throughout the government, not all of whom are members of the union.

How to Best Discipline Workers

An Office of Personnel Management report outlines the "best practices" federal agencies should follow when "taking disciplinary action for conduct inconsistent" with anti-discrimination and whistleblower protection laws. The study and the guidelines are required under the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002, otherwise known as the No FEAR Act.

Among the best practices:

· Involve program officers and senior staff in the development of policies.

· Provide written guidance to supervisors on their responsibility to take steps to address inappropriate conduct and on selecting appropriate penalties.

· Require managers to work with employee relations staff and agency lawyers to take appropriate disciplinary action.

The report also suggests using alternative disciplinary tools, such as last-chance agreements. Under these agreements, the disciplinary measure for an employee would not be implemented "pending successful completion of some requirement intended to correct inappropriate conduct."

If that requirement was not met, the measure would be imposed immediately.

"This alternative means of discipline may be appropriate, for example, when the employee has many years of service free of any previous disciplinary actions or allegations of improper conduct and demonstrates good potential for rehabilitation," the report says.

The report deals not just with discipline, but also with measures intended to prevent violations before they happen. The report urges effective training for supervisors on "how to handle potential disciplinary issues early."

Another important factor in preventing abuses is the involvement of bosses, the report says. "It is extremely valuable for the agency head to demonstrate an active involvement in the prevention of conduct inconsistent with antidiscrimination and whistleblower protection laws," the report says.

End of Certification

The Small Business Administration has stopped certifying that firms qualify as a "small disadvantaged business" when they seek government contracts. The designation was necessary for companies to win contracts even if their bids were 10 percent higher than those from other companies.

Authority to use the advantage ended for most agencies in 2004. The Defense Department, NASA, and the Coast Guard continued to have the power to implement the benefit. But the Pentagon, which represents about 68 percent of federal procurement, met its goal for buying from small and disadvantaged business for the last six years without using it.

That meant firms had to go through the time and expense of the certification process, sometimes paying big bucks to other companies for help with the application, even though the program was no longer used.

"Federal procuring agencies have expressed concerns of having firms go through the time and expense of the SDB certification process when there is little-to-no benefit," an SBA statement says.

Federal purchases from those firms rose to $25 billion in fiscal year 2007 from $6.2 billion in fiscal 1999, according to the SBA. That represents a growth in federal procurement of 6.6 percent from 3.3 percent. The goal is 5 percent.

Contact Joe Davidson atfederaldiary@washpost.com.