RENO, Nev., Aug. 25 — Federal employees lost a good friend when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) died Tuesday night. Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, recalled a man who was “visible and up front in his recognition of federal employees.” When he spoke to the organization’s rallies and legislative conferences, his remarks “were from his heart and from knowledge that he had about the work that they did,” Kelley said. “It was never a scripted speech that he read. ... You could see the passion that he had for federal employees, for the country and for the work federal employees did for the country.” From a long list of federal workplace issues that Kennedy advocated, Kelley made particular note of his efforts to fight plans by the George W. Bush administration to have outside contractors do government work. “He believed first and foremost that the
The White House plans to create a National Council on Federal Labor Relations, with the intention of fostering cooperation between federal employees and management and the goal of improving government service. The Council would be patterned on the labor-management partnerships created under former President Bill Clinton, then largely abandoned under George W. Bush. Federal unions have pushed the Obama administration to issue an order creating the council, and it is preparing to do so. A draft executive order being readied for President Obama says “Labor-Management Forums will allow managers and employees to collaboratively champion change in the Federal Government so that agencies can deliver the highest quality services to the American people.”
A few weeks ago, President Obama declared cybersecurity to be “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation” and said “we’re not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country.” His words basically sum up a new report by a nonprofit organization that calls on his administration to quickly and significantly improve the quality and quantity of the federal cybersecurity workforce. “Critical government and private sector computer networks are under constant attack from foreign nations, criminal groups, hackers, virus writers and terrorist organizations,” said the report, published by the Partnership for Public Service and the consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton. The report outlines four primary challenges it says threaten the quality and quantity of the cybersecurity workforce. »There are not enough qualified applicants for federal cybersecurity jobs. »The government’s approach to cybersecurity is fragmented and uncoordinated. »The
The Senior Executives Association is marking the 30th anniversary of the Senior Executive Service by trying to find out why upper-level federal workers don't want to join the very top ranks of the civil service. The association is surveying GS-14s and GS-15, those employees at the upper levels of the federal General Schedule workforce classification system. The SES ranks are above GS-15. "Many talented, able members of this feeder group do not aspire to positions in the executive corps," according to SEA President Carol Bonosaro. "The reasons most often cited include the loss of locality pay and of a guaranteed annual national comparability raise, increased hours and responsibilities, and executive pay overlap with the General Schedule and the National Security Personnel System." She said the survey is timely because many senior executives are eligible to retire. “It is important that we know the thoughts of the group of individuals next
Tomorrow is an anniversary Bob Whitmore never sought and it has been marked with a present he doesn’t want. Two years ago Thursday, Whitmore was placed on paid administrative leave by the Labor Department, where he is a senior executive in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Now, after the agency paid him $300,000 to do nothing, he learned yesterday that he will be fired this month. This is not a story about whether Whitmore deserves to get the boot or not. It is a story about a bureaucracy that strings along a 37-year employee with a good record of service. The bosses prohibited him from doing a lick of work, even from home, causing taxpayers to pay for zilch. Certainly there should be no rush to judgment in cases where a career is at stake. But there is nothing to suggest Whitmore’s case should have taken so long to
