E Pluribus Unum - NFFE Local 1998

Local 1998 Address:
Issue #26
PO Box 2221
Seattle, WA 98111
Website:
www.nffe1998.org
March 2015
E Pluribus Unum
Local 1998 of the National Federation of Federal Employees, IAMAW, AFL-CIO
Representing the employees of Passport Services, a division of the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, since Oct. 19, 1981
Arbitrator Overturns Employee Dismissal
The situation was not new or
unique: Passport Management determined that a Passport Specialist was
under-performing. The employee’s
supervisor documented a number of
significant knowledge errors, placed
the employee on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and proposed
terminating his career with the
Agency.
The employee, Michael Romano,
reached out to the Union. San Francisco Senior Steward Gil Yap submitted a painstaking explanation
showing that many of the significant
knowledge errors were based on the
subjective opinions of the supervisor
and not substantiated by the Foreign
Affairs Manual. The CA Executive
Director provided no specific response to any of these points.
Though the Union pointed out that
Arbitrator Seymour Strongin had
already found the “Knowledge of
Adjudication” Performance Element
to be unfair and unreasonable, the
Executive Director later testified he
did not read the entire arbitration
decision, instead relying on the Office of Adjudication to have appropriately researched the errors.
The Agency’s decision held that
Romano should be fired. Local 1998
filed a grievance and, after receiving
a denial from Agency Management,
forwarded the matter to arbitration.
Arbitrator Norman Brand
heard the matter in late 2014.
NFFE General Counsel Phillip
Snodgrass argued the case for the
Union. Local President Rob Arnold testified that the Agency had
repeatedly declined to make changes that a second arbitrator had already deemed necessary. Arnold
testified that some of the significant knowledge errors Romano
was charged with are considered
mandatory adjudication procedure
in other offices.
San Francisco
officers Gil Yap
and James
Lensen-Callas
testified that a
ex-manager in
San Francisco
had arrived
with the view
that most in the
office were rated too highly.
Soon afterward,
evaluation ratings clearly reflected this new
mentality.
Gil Yap, Mike Romano, NFFE General Counsel Phil Snodgrass and Rob Arnold
March 2015
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Local 1998 Names New Vice President
Late last year, Vice President Paul Barton made the
decision to step down from his national-level Union post. A
member since 2009, Paul had previously served as a local
steward and national trustee. He continues to assist employees by serving as a steward at the National Passport Center.
The new Vice
President, James LensenCallas, was ratified in
January of this year.
Originally from Portland,
Oregon,.
James served in
the Peace Corps in Peru
and lived in the Andes
New Vice President James
Lensen-Callas arrives at his
from 2007 to 2010. He curnational position with an es- rently lives in San Francisco
tablished track record
with his wife. He has
worked at the San Francisco Passport Agency since 2011. As
a steward, James and Senior Steward Gil Yap III won multiple Unfair Labor Practices, and have represented BUEs in
EEO cases and grievances.
Former Vice President Paul Barton (pictured
above) whose number-crunching revealed major
differences between how employees and Managers were awarded
Employee Dismissal Overturned (continued from pg. 1)
Senior Steward Gil Yap testified that
several employees in San Francisco seemed to be blatantly targeted once Management became unhappy with
them. Yap pointed out that Mr. Romano had grieved his
supervisor’s attempt to prevent him from claiming time
to keep a PIERS/ACRQ log. Following the grievance, his
supervisor elevated his audit rate.
Former and current supervisors in San Francisco,
victims of the same upper management conduct that impacted employees, testified that Romano was a solid adjudicator. They seconded the Union testimony that there
were instances where employees were subjectively
placed under extra scrutiny.
The Agency argued that the PIP standard of a
maximum six errors was appropriate. Testimony from
the Office of Adjudication stated that 80% of all adjudicators commit only five SKE’s per year. They introduced
a summary of a study performed by Deloitte and Touche
(of Time and Motion fame) that concluded, in looking at
45-day snapshots of nationwide performance, that six
allowable SKE’s was being generous.
Michael Romano testified that his supervisor
was sometimes wrong in her adjudication analysis, and
that she once issued an application in error in overruling
his suspension of a case.
Arbitrator Brand sided with the Union and Mr.
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Romano He ruled that the limit of six SKEs was unfair,
as well as harsher than the standard applied to most
Passport Specialists. He noted that the Agency’s rationale for six as the acceptable PIP limit was incomprehensible.
Brand ruled that the Agency cannot equate Significant Knowledge Errors with Issued in Error cases,
but then fire someone primarily on the basis of decisions
to not issue. He stated that Passport Services needs a
separate category of errors for mistakes in determining
not to issue, but that category must carry an allowable
error rate. He ordered Romano returned to work, with
full back pay for the time missed. The Agency still has an
opportunity to appeal the decision.
The lessons to take away from the ruling seem to
be: a) the penalty for issuing in error should be greater
than the penalty for errors in not issuing; b) merely declaring that matters were looked into, but not explaining
how, is likely not persuasive, and c) first-line supervisors
will not remain silent if they become aware of unfair
treatment of employees.
One sad footnote to this story is that attorney
Phil Snodgrass did not live to hear of the career he saved.
He was cut down, at the age of 27, by an uncontrolled
motor vehicle that jumped the curb and struck him on
February 24th in Washington DC.
March 2015
Awards Budget Grievance Finally Concluding
Suppose that a written agreement requires that
awards be distributed “fairly”: how you do police and define fairness? In Passport Services, what was unfair became so glaring that Local 1998 felt compelled to take actino. Distribution of awards in Passport Services has historically favored managers.
In 2009, Local 1998 complained directly to highlevel Passport officials, pointing out that the distribution
of the department awards budget was unfairly lopsided. It
would not be the last time Local 1998 pointed out the
awards disparity, but no significant changes resulted.
The Union’s bargaining team for the next contract
placed a priority of building specifics into the awards process. Chief Negotiator Steve Flory and Local 1998 officers
delivered a new contract containing tougher language on
employee’s rights. One new section promised a fair distribution of awards to unit employees (versus their managerial counterparts); another guaranteed the Union access to
awards data by which awards parity could be measured.
In April 2011, with the mandated awards data late
by several weeks, Local 1998 President Rob Arnold requested agency statistics for calendar year 2010. The Agency provided only the amounts for employees. Possessing
only half of the two-part equation it was supposed to monitor, the Local prepared to take the omission to a hearing.
The arbitration was narrowly avoided when, in
2012, the agency finally turned over the remainder of 2010
awards figures. A review of that data showed that employees (who outnumber the managers) were much less likely
to receive an award. In some offices, to be a manager was
to automatically receive an award.
The average manager’s award was twice as large as
the typical employee’s award at some locations. Quality
Step Increases, which carry more value over time than other awards, were disproportionately going to managers.
This QSI imbalance impacted not only employees, but the
taxpayers; a QSI to a highly-paid official is more expensive
than to a lower-grade employee.
Though the 2010 awards data had just come in to
resolve the last grievance, the 2011 data was now tardy, as
well. Local 1998 filed another grievance. A Local 1998
team headed by Paul Barton spent hours tallying up
awards amounts, much of it on their own time.
The issue went before Arbitrator Jerome Ross on
July 12, 2013. NFFE General Counsel Stefan Sutich argued
that 2010, the year the Agency failed a GAO fraud detection test, was a curious year for managers to receive so
much of the awards budget. Ross sided with the Union,
agreeing that the distribution of awards for 2010 and 2011
could not be described as fair. He ordered both sides to
explore a mutually-agreeable resolution.
Months elapsed before a meeting could be arranged. Following the meeting, the Agency claimed that
the Union agreed that $20,000 would address all wrongs
(though the awards budget for the 2010 and 2011 totaled
close to one million dollars, not even factoring in QSI’s).
Though Local 1998’s contract states that the losing side
pays for the arbitrator, the Agency insisted it had not lost
the arbitration and was not responsible for the bill.
By 2014, passport employees were still waiting on
their belated awards recognition. With the two sides unable reach agreement, Arbitrator Ross requested that each
side make its case for what the appropriate remedy should
be. The Agency now surprisingly claimed that the award
amounts it had previously provided (twice) for 2010 were
inaccurate; that the totals for 2010 and 2011 were actually
only a fraction of the half-million dollars it handed out other years. Thus, it argued, the amount of money needed to
correct the imbalance was also much lower. The Agency
further argued that any time the Union did not file a grievance (as was the case with prior years’ awards) was an
acknowledgement that Management was following the
contract.
Ross met again with both sides. He informed the
Awards splits like the one pictured here
have long been a sore point for the Union,
particularly after language in the 2009 contract called for an equitable distribution of
the awards budget
March 2015
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Office Layout in Puerto Rico Goes to Hearing
When the Agency opened the San Juan Passport AgenRob Arnold and Amanda Booher visit the
San Juan Passport Agency
cy at the end of 2013, it did so without responding to a request
to bargain from the Union. Consequently, the office layout
turned out exactly as Management preferred. One glaring
problem is that the office has more Passport Specialists than
cubicles, forcing the BUEs to play “musical chairs” with their
desks.
NFFE Local 1998 filed a grievance against the Agency
for its failure to negotiate the office working conditions. The
Agency answered the grievance, stating that it “may have”
committed some contract violations, but then passed up multiple opportunities to engage in bargaining to fix the situation. With no agreement on the underlying ground rules for
bargaining, and the Agency refusing to settle the case, the Union took the matter to arbitration.
Seattle Senior Steward Sue Lamie and Local 1998 Secretary-Treasurer Amanda Booher were the advocates for the
union. In their first ever arbitration case, they faced multiple
complex contract interpretation issues, waded through copious Agency exhibits, and endured last minute filings from the
Agency.
Noted arbitrator Roger Abrams heard testimony from
both sides in January of this year. The Agency maintains that,
once it acknowledges a violation, even if it has done little to remedy the harm, the Union cannot take the matter to arbitration. A decision on the case is expected soon.
Awards Budget Grievance (continued from pg. 3)
Agency that it was the loser of the arbitration. The matter
of the awards statistics, though, was a tougher nut to
crack. Local 1998 officers pointed out that some 2010
awards, reflected in their old bank statements, were of
amounts the agency’s “corrected” set of figures claimed
were never handed out.
Insisting that the data showing a small disparity
was accurate, the Agency invited the Union to bring in an
observer to verify the data contained in the electronic performance records. NFFE Associate Counsel Phil Snodgrass volunteered to be Local 1998’s observer. The day
before Snodgrass was due to arrive at the Agency, Management representatives stated that new details cast
doubt on their most recent set of statistics. The Agency
agreed that the original set of data was correct, after all.
Arbitrator Ross awarded passport employees an
overall sum of $125,000 to correct the awards imbalance
for 2010 and 2011. He further determined that the Agency
owed 25 current employees Quality Step Increases.
The value of the QSI’s won’t ultimately be known
for years, but each could easily be worth thousands of dollars. The employees the Agency will select for further
cash awards, as well as the legal fees that Management
may owe to NFFE, are still being determined.
Asked its opinion on how to distribute the
$125,000 of the award, Local 1998 recommended a broad
distribution to all those that qualified under the parameters set by Ross; however, Agency Management recently
indicated it will likely restrict the monetary portion to
those employees rated Outstanding in 2010 or 2011. There
is no word yet on the criteria to select those who will receive Quality Step Increases.
NFFE Local 1998 National Officers: President: Rob Arnold, Vice President: James Lensen-Callas, Chief Steward: Gerald Moore,
Secretary-Treasurer: Amanda Booher, Recording Secretary: Josue Trinidad-Perez, Trustees: Michelle Salisbury, and Lee Wentz
Senior Stewards: AnaKarina Mercado, Jeri Titus, Brian Farries, Robin Pickens, Robert Speed, Willie Richbourgh, Butrina Tolbert,
Lynette Frowner, Sharlene Hennis, Aaron Mathison, Debra Reese-Jolly, Andrew Woodford, Robin Mullen, Helen Bechard, Alex
Abrego, Gil Yap, Sue Lamie, Patricia Blackwell, Melissa Toby, Boyd Hinton, Adalberto Jimenez, John Plummer, Michael McPherson.
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March 2015