Continued from part 1 ...
1) The agency will increase the AG, D1, D2, D3, and CPC pay bands by 5%, but no corresponding increase to the band maximum. In simple terms, the agency asks us to agree to a 25% reduction in the developmental and CPC pay as opposed to a 30% reduction.
2) The FAA - who called my last offer regressive, has deleted the 15% on-the-job-training (OJTI) differential contained in their 12-26-07 offer.
3) The FAA will increase pay bands by 1.67% for FY 2009 and FY 2010; FY 2011 will be decided by the agency. Since the vast majority of controllers employed are currently above the band maximums, this band increase will have little to no affect. And according to discussions we had with them over the past year, this is the average amount the Administrator intends to increase all FAA pay bands. And if we agreed, what’s to stop the Agency from reducing the pay bands by another 30% in January 2011?
4) Downgrades will be held in abeyance until the IWR's expire; at that time, the FAA can do whatever they want; they specifically will not negotiate what is required under law (49 USC 40122; 5 USC chapter 71) concerning classification, and all pay rules associated with upgrades and downgrades.
5) CIP will be paid to eligible BUE's at 80% of what was paid prior to IWR's. No back pay - even though management has been and continues to receive 100% CIP at these facilities. The amount available is $21M, which remains static throughout the terms of the IWR. This means the available amount diminishes with inflation and the amount paid to employees will actually decrease due to increasing numbers of BUE’s receiving it. Currently, just over 1100 FLM’s get $10.4M for their CIP. As of June 2008 the CIP MOU would have grown the CIP pool to $37.8M per year (excluding increases in FY 2009 on the CIP pool). 80% of that is $30.2M... so it appears they want to use 20% of your CIP pool to pay both controllers and managers CIP.
6) Removes restriction for receiving an OSI/SCI pay raise or bonus if an employee was decertified for performance during the year. Employees are still penalized from receiving OSI/SCI for being disciplined during the year. Based on the latest policy change by the FAA as identified in the GAM (government advisory memo), the FAA is advising managers that they should discipline controllers for performance errors as opposed to utilizing performance based correction techniques.
7) The FAA agrees to pay all BUE's above the band maximums 1.5% of their OSI/SCI awards (if any) in base pay for 2009, 2010, and 2011. The rest of the federal government gets the full Presidential increase, and all management personnel in the FAA get the full OSI/SCI in base pay. After 2011 the FAA does whatever they want.
8) The FAA offers an additional 1% of an employee’s OSI/SCI towards base pay for BUE's eligible to retire. After 2011, the FAA does whatever they want...
9) Agency agrees to pay CIC (controller in charge) premium of 10% while assigned those duties for BUE's assigned to ATC facility level 4-9.
10) The FAA says they will make available 80% of the annual leave earned in a year at a facility for bidding vacation leave. The remaining 20% of leave slots remain open for management to decide what to do.
12) The FAA states they will normally allow an employee who reports to work after being assigned over time to work the full 8 hours instead of sending that person home after a few hours when they don’t need them anymore.
13) The FAA will allow jeans and sneakers.
14) If we agreed to this settlement, NATCA would be required to withdraw all grievances, ULP’s and law suits. We would essentially wave all of our rights to negotiating a collective bargaining agreement to completion and the ability for the membership to ratify it. There would be no back pay for any employee. We would have to accept their IWR’s as imposed.
As you can see, there is not much different from this settlement offer compared to the last settlement offer the Agency gave us. This cons!@$%#!@$%#!@$%#utes another attempt by the FAA to show Congress and the media that they are attempting to resolve the gargantuan labor problems and staffing problems they have created. The truth is, FAA management believes they can run this operation without the expertise, cooperation and help of our members. They have shown how much they disrespect your commitment to this profession and the safety umbrella we provide for the traveling public. They have decided that the controller work force is not important and that anyone can do the fine work you all do on a daily basis.
And if you haven’t noticed, the FAA Union busting machine continues to find ways to divide our ranks so that our members grow discouraged of their Union. Either through A/B/C scale impositions or removals of probationary employees, to more sophisticated conniving such as briefing their managers on a settlement offer that was agreed to remain confidential before it was even delivered to NATCA. We’ve all seen the way they disrespect us. And now they must deal with the mess they have created… The only way to accomplish labor peace in this agency is to negotiate and ratify a collective bargaining agreement with the controllers.
Pat
To view the hearing in it's entirety, go to http://www.ATCnews.com and make your selection under "Playlists".
Forrey Update for the Week of June 8, 2008 (part 2)
