(November 16, 2020) 

To further improve communication lines and respond to the concerns between the National VA Council and you, our members, I have established a National VA Council Briefing. This NVAC Briefing will bring you the latest news and developments within DVA and provide you with the current status of issues this Council is currently addressing. I believe that this NVAC Briefing will significantly enhance how we communicate, and how we share new information, keeping you better informed. 

Alma L. Lee

National VA Council, President

In This Briefing: PIP Arbitration Victory: FLRA Decision

Following the passage of the Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017, the VA took the position that it no longer had to comply with Article 27, Section 10 of the 2011 Master Agreement and provide performance improvement plans (PIPs) to employees before initiating performance-based action under the Accountability Act.  Despite NVAC’s early efforts to explain to the VA that its legal position was incorrect, the VA refused to comply with our contract.  NVAC filed a National Grievance on September 29, 2017. 

On August 23, 2018, Arbitrator Jerome Ross sustained NVAC’s national grievance and found that the VA violated law and contract by failing to provide PIPs to employees before taking performance-based actions under the Accountability Act.  The Arbitrator ordered the VA to comply with the 2011 Master Agreement, to rescind any performance-based actions taken against employees who did not first receive a PIP that complied with Article 27, and to make-whole affected employees with reinstatement, backpay, leave, other benefits, and attorney’s fees. 

However, on September 24, 2018, the VA filed exceptions to this arbitration award.  We have been waiting for the FLRA’s decision for more than two years.  Earlier today, in a 2-1 decision, the FLRA denied the VA’s exceptions and upheld the arbitration award.  A copy of the decision is attached. 

The FLRA found it had jurisdiction to resolve the dispute and denied all of the VA’s arguments, including that the arbitration award was contrary to law, that the Arbitrator exceeded his authority, and that the award did not draw its essence from our contract.  In sum, the FLRA agreed with the Arbitrator’s conclusion that Article 27, Section 10 of the 2011 Master Agreement (requiring 90-day PIPs) is not contrary to the Accountability Act because the contract governs what must happen prior to initiating a performance-based action, while the procedures and timelines in the Accountability Act only govern what happens after the VA initiates a performance-based action.  This is the exact same argument that NVAC raised with the VA in the summer of 2017. 

This is a major victory for NVAC.  We are proud of this result and thank you for your patience and support during this years-long dispute with the VA. 

Please note - due to the agency restrictions our our use official time, we have nobody that can meet during busines hours the remainder of this week (through 11 September 2020).  We apologize.  If management schedules you for a meeting this week and you may invite a union representative, please let them know they must either reschedule if for some point next week, or schedule it prior to 6:45am, or after 7:00pm otherwise.

DFAS has now provided notice that it will implement system changes to defer employees’ withholding of social security wages. This change only applies to employees under the wages threshold and subject to social security tax. This change is due to the Presidential Memorandum issued on August 8, 2020 which is intended to address the ongoing pandemic. The withholding of social security wages, Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (“OASDI”), is referred to as the “payroll tax,” which you may have heard discussed in the news. The Department of the Treasury/IRS issued guidance on August 28, 2020.

What does this mean?

This means that employees whose gross (pre-tax) social security wages (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance or OASDI) are less than $4,000 in any given pay period, will not see a deduction for OASDI. In other words, you will see an increase in your paycheck.

That’s great, isn’t it?

It may be great for the short term, but that amount is still considered owed, and you may have to pay it back when you file your taxes next year. So, instead of paying it each pay period for the rest of this year, you may have to pay it back between January 1-April 30 of next year. Employees should consult a tax advisor for individual tax specific questions.

Why is it that I may have to pay it back?

In the Presidential Memorandum, the Trump administration stated that it will “explore” making the deferral permanent, by forgiving the tax, so that it would not have to be paid back. However, there has not been a final action to make it permanent. So, employees should expect that it will have to be paid back, unless and until a final action has occurred to forgive the tax.

I make over $4000 a pay period, what does this mean for me?

You will not see a change in your paycheck based on the Presidential Memorandum.

I don’t normally have an OASDI deduction in my paycheck, what does this mean for me?

This is more than likely because you are under the CSRS retirement system. You will not see a change in your paycheck based on the Presidential Memorandum.FROM VA FSC

Subject:  Deferred Payroll Taxes                                    

Background:  In response to the Presidential Memorandum issued on August 8, 2020, and the Department of the Treasury/IRS guidance issued August 28, 2020, DFAS will implement system changes to defer employees’ withholding of 6.2% of social security wages for those employees under the wages threshold and subject to social security tax.

The guidance will be implemented according to the expectation that all Federal Civilian Payroll Providers will act in unison. As such, no Payroll Providers, Departments/Agencies, nor employees will be able to opt-in/opt-out of the deferral.  The elimination of the withholding of employee deductions for the applicable employees will be effective the second paycheck in September, pay period ending September 12, 2020, pay date September 18, 2020. 

VA’s Payroll Provider (DFAS) will defer the Social Security (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance or OASDI) employee deductions for all employees whose gross social security wages are less than $4,000 in any given pay period through pay period ending December 19,2020 pay date December 24, 2020.  Applicability will be determined on a pay period-by-pay period basis and could vary according to the wages subject to OASDI withholding.  The deferral will not impact those employees in Retirement Plans not subject to Social Security withholding (i.e. CSRS).

Please be advised that the IRS guidance advises that the deferred amount of OASDI tax be collected between January 1-April 30, 2021.  The IRS is still working to determine how the deferral and collection will impact employees’ W-2s.  Employees should be made aware that the temporary deferral of the 6.2% OASDI withholding does not eliminate them from being liable for the taxes deferred in 2020 should they depart from Federal Civilian Employment. 

Additional information and guidance will be provided as it is received.   

The Union Office phones in building 9 have been offline since Friday, July 17th.  We still had full email capabilties.  The problem was with our service provider.

After a couple of visits, some increased signal strength, and a replacement IPC phone modem, we are now fully back up and the phones are working.  While we were still able to receive messages, we could not respond except to reach out via email, which we were doing.

Sorry for any delays in responding and we thank all our membership for your patience while we worked with our phone service provider to get all our phone services restored.

We are well aware of the recent articles posted by WIBW (and shown below) regarding postive cases of COVID-19 within the call center.  We are also aware of the misinformation provided by the agency in those articles.

We reached out to WIBW and KSNT on 8 April regarding this situation.  WIBW never contacted us back.  However, KSNT has interviewed one of your union staff calling to light this disinformation, although to date KSNT has chosen NOT to air that interview.  

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Topeka VA Call Center confirms two coronavirus cases

Here is more information regardinfg the new Families First Coronavirus Response Act.  Click on the image to download a full size PDF.

AFGE says D.C. Mayor should enact emergency plans, do more to protect workers

WASHINGTON – The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal and D.C. government workers, is calling on D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to take more aggressive steps to protect employees and the public from the coronavirus.

"Mayor Bowser needs to conduct an assessment of what essential services are required for D.C. residents during this time of major emergency," said Eric Bunn, national vice president for AFGE's 14th District, which represents more than 20,000 D.C. and federal government employees.

Lacking top-down direction, each D.C. agency has been left to respond on its own – resulting in inconsistent implementation of emergency guidelines, Bunn said. Examples include:

• The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs is operating as normal and has failed to provide adequate safety equipment to employees.
• The Department of Motor Vehicles is requiring employees to report to work even though not all services are being conducted, exposing them to potential health hazards.
• At least nine youth have tested positive for COVID-19 after reporting to the Department of Youth and Rehabilitation Services, where staff have not been provided with adequate protection.

Bunn said he would like for both Mayor Bowser and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to follow the lead of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who has taken aggressive steps statewide to minimize group activity and limit the spread of the virus.

"We realize that some positions are essential, and the city needs these employees to perform critical duties, but it is just as essential for agencies to provide those employees the proper protections to aid in preventing the spread of virus," Bunn said. "These employees have families too and they must be protected."

Federal agencies in the District also are putting their essential employees at risk by failing to provide them adequate protections. TSA officers at National Airport are being required to disclose their personal health status, in violation of HIPPA laws, to be considered for leave. Officers at the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency must violate social distancing guidelines to interview offenders inside overcrowded lockup facilities.

"We need all of our elected leaders in the Washington area to work together and take immediate steps to limit exposure to this virus," AFGE National President Everett Kelley said. "That means shutting down all but the most essential services, and making sure all steps are being taken to protect those employees who must report to work." 

For the latest news and information about the coronavirus, visit www.afge.org/coronavirus.

Reprinted from AFGE National

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, a global pandemic as cases in the U.S. climbed to more than 3,700 in 49 states and Washington, D.C. The outbreak has forced Americans, including federal workers, to change their daily lives. Trade shows and conferences across the country have been canceled. The NCAA basketball tournament has been canceled. More than 100 universities have cancelled in-person classes, including those with no active cases, and moved online.

Federal agencies, however, have been largely slow in their response to the risk of infection among the workforce despite new guidance from the Office of Personnel Management maximizing telework.

The Social Security Administration (SSA), for example, has denied our union’s repeated calls to immediately allow all eligible workers to telework. Four SSA offices may have already been exposed to the virus:

1. Seven Fields, PA Office of Hearing Operations (OH): A vocational expert worked in the hearing office after she was exposed to someone with possible COVID-19. As of March 13, no action was taken with respect to the employees who were potentially exposed as a result.

2. Baltimore, Md., OHO National Case Assistance Center: An employee was potentially exposed to COVID-19 through a family member. The employee informed management, and management sent the employee home. As of March 13, no action was taken for the employees who were potentially exposed because they worked around the employee who reported a potential exposure.

3. Auburn, WA Mega teleservice center/ Workload Support Unit: An employee reported to management that the employee was potentially exposed to the virus after being in immediate contact with an employee who tested positive for COVID-19. Management’s response was to proposed isolating the employee in the office by stashing the employee in a corner, rather than grant the employee telework (which the employee had done in the past).

4. A St. Louis-area field office was potentially exposed to COVID-19 after an employee’s family member attended a party with someone who tested positive. As of March 13, no action was taken.

SSA drastically cut the telework program last year and earlier this year. It now reinstated telework only at a handful of offices, including those in Seattle and New York. Our union is still working to get the agency to reinstate telework agencywide, but we shouldn’t have to. The agency is putting the public and employees at risk.

“Every single day SSA does nothing, SSA bears the responsibility for what happens to its employees and to the visiting public when it could have very easily taken steps such as telework expansion and deploying alternative methods to serve the public to mitigate the risk,” said AFGE Council 215 President Rich Couture. “Every day the agency refuses to do to the right thing the right way, SSA sends the message that it does not care about the health and well-being of its workforce, as well as the visiting public. Shame.”

At the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in Washington, D.C., employees are upset that OPM failed to take appropriate steps after employees were potentially exposed to COVID-19 in the facility.

At the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), as far back as January 29, AFGE began asking for proper personal protective equipment for employees, including that TSA officers be allowed to use N95 respirators to protect themselves while screening passengers. TSA, however, denied the request, saying the officers can only wear surgical masks, which don’t really provide protection against this kind of respiratory disease. Seven TSA officers recently contracted the virus: four in San Jose, Calif., one in Atlanta, one in Orlando, and one in Fort Lauderdale.

It’s chaos at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Two VA facilities – the Indianapolis and Little Rock medical centers – are confiscating the facilities’ mask inventory and not letting the employees use them. Employees are told to mask a patient if presented with symptoms, but not the employees treating them.

The VA has banned visitors at its nursing homes, but visitors are still allowed at most VA hospitals, creating chaos at some facilities due to new screening measures being implemented without a national strategy.

Administrative personnel at a VA facility in Cleveland, Ohio, for example, expressed concern that management placed them on the frontline to screen veterans and visitors even though they are not qualified to evaluate patients.

“AFGE is concerned that safety protocols have not been sufficiently communicated to the frontline workforce, and adequate personal protective equipment such as gloves, effective masks and hand cleaner have not been deployed to an adequate extent,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley.

The VA is asking veterans with flu-like symptoms to call before they visit their local VA facilities, but whether veterans will get through is another story as the VA is severely short-staffed – the agency has for years refused to fill its 50,000 vacancies.

According to our internal survey, agencies are not communicating with their workforces to a degree that will allow them to protect themselves or the public adequately in order to contain the spread of this virus. In most cases, employees have only been given a link to the Centers for Disease Control website, told to monitor the news, and stay home if they do not feel well.

As of March 16, only a few agencies are implementing agencywide telework: the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“During this unprecedented time, in order to keep our workforce healthy, and so that we can continue to serve students, I am directing everyone who is in a position that is deemed telework eligible to begin telework immediately. This directive is in accordance with the new CDC and OMB guidance issued yesterday and is in the best interests of our federal workforce.,” said the agency.

At USCIS, each employee’s eligibility will be decided by management following bargaining with AFGE.

"The Agency intends to implement the Remote Work program throughout every office in the Agency," Labor and Employee Relations Division chief Judy McLaughlin said in a March 9 letter to AFGE Council 119 President Danielle Spooner. "Determinations whether existing or proposed Remote Work agreements are in the best interest of USCIS, whether an employee is eligible to participate in the Remote Work Program, and whether the agency should enter into a Remote Work agreement with an employee will be made by management.”

A lot more needs to be done to protect frontline workers

President Trump has tried to cut the Centers for Disease Control’s and National Institutes of Health’s budgets since taking office. Fortunately, Congress has refused to go along. Trump did eliminate a pandemic response team created by Obama following the 2014 Ebola outbreak. For fiscal 2021, Trump proposed to cut the CDC’s budget by 9%. The administration isn’t backing off the proposed cuts despite the coronavirus outbreak.

Our union is grateful that Congress recently provided $8.3 billion in emergency supplemental funding to address the coronavirus pandemic. Health care providers and emergency responders are among those federal employees who have been or are likely to be called upon to provide services to populations infected with COVID-19 by providing healthcare and other public safety services.

But a lot more needs to be done to provide support to frontline workers.

1. Most effective personal protective equipment

Workers who provide patient care and those who are emergency responders must be accorded the highest priority for disease prevention measures, including providing them with the most effective personal protective equipment.

There will likely be a national shortage of N95 charcoal and paper respirators. N95 respirators are only safe to wear and use once within a 24-hour period as they are at risk of developing mold after just one day of wear. AFGE finds the recent CDC guidance allowing the use of surgical masks instead of respirators extremely concerning. As we learn more about the ways COVID-19 spreads, the CDC and federal agencies must make certain that all federal employees potentially exposed to the virus have the necessary personal protective equipment.

We have also received reports that agencies still do not have an adequate number of white respirator germ free suits for coronavirus response.

Congress must ensure that the recent funding provided by H.R. 6074 reaches the frontline responders and federal employees required to interact with the public as they perform their duties.

2. Full health care coverage

All federal employees who are in positions where they may be exposed to COVID-19 should have rapid access to screening at no cost.

For those on the frontlines such as first responders, law enforcement officers, TSA officers, and all those with substantial work-related contact with the general public where telework is not practicable, we urge agencies to adopt a policy, like the long-established precedent at the VA with Agent Orange, that if they are exposed, there is a presumption that the virus was contracted at work. That way, a frontline worker will have access through the Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) to full coverage of related medical treatment and for wage loss or disability related to that condition or associated complications from the illness.

TSA should also immediately retract its recent reductions of Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) coverage for its large part-time workforce and provide for a temporary open season to return to better health plans. These workers’ share of premiums doubled, and with their low pay, many changed to less expensive policies with higher deductibles and less generous coverage. We cannot afford to have such artificial barriers to employees seeking the best possible medical treatment.

3. Hazardous duty pay

Workers who provide direct patient care and emergency services to individuals who have contracted COVID-19 do not have clear, specific guidance and effective preventive equipment and gear to protect themselves from contracting the virus. In other cases where workers are exposed to unusual hazards, current law provides for a pay differential, or hazardous duty pay.

Because these workers are in immediate danger of exposure, and current protocols have no guarantees of protection, employees required to work and interface with individuals who have been quarantined or diagnosed with COVID-19 should qualify for hazardous duty pay.

4. Telework

Agencies should allow workers who can perform their duties via telework to begin doing so immediately.

Before the outbreak of the virus, the administration had either drastically cut or cancelled several telework programs at various agencies such as SSA, EPA, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Education as part of its ongoing war against federal workers and unions.

What we’ve just won

Prescription refills

AFGE was successful in persuading OPM to ask the insurance companies that cover participants in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) to relax refill eligibility dates and requirements in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. Virtually all prescription drug plans under the FEHBP use Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), one purpose of which is to limit the unnecessary refilling and/or renewal of prescriptions prior to a patient’s anticipated exhaustion of their existing prescription supply. PBM renewal limitations have been strengthened in recent years due to widespread opioid abuse.

The COVID-19 crisis, coupled with general drug supply disruptions, meant that the “just-in-time” approach used by PBMs could cause federal employees, retirees and their dependents to be unable to refill many prescriptions during this crisis, including those used for chronic conditions. We told OPM in a letter that this was a matter of grave concern to our members because PBMs often restrict the refilling of a prescription until less than one week prior to the anticipated exhaustion of a patient’s supply.

As of March 11, OPM asked carriers to comply with our request ( https://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/healthcare/carriers/2020/2020-02.pdf ).

AFGE’s coronavirus website

The situation involving COVID-19 is a rapidly evolving one. Our website at www.afge.org/coronavirus provides bargaining guidance to our local and council leaders on the issue. We are committed to keeping you updated on information regarding the coronavirus and its impact in the United States. Check out our coronavirus website here .

Our union’s headquarters is also going to telework effective March 16, but we will not skip a beat in holding agencies accountable for their coronavirus response.

Reprinted from the AFGE national website; https://www.afge.org/article/federal-agencies-still-drag-feet-in-protect...

Due to the agency’s illegal implementation of Presidential Executive Order 13837 we are unavailable to address Union concerns during our tours of duty. We would be happy to schedule a meeting after our shifts any weekday until this illegal action by the agency is resolved. To be clear, we are unable to respond via email, skype, or any other communication medium to address any Union related questions during the aforementioned times. We will attempt to respond to any inquires after our normal duty tours. For further convenience please direct any Union based inquires to AFGE906@gmail.com and a representative will respond at our earliest availability.