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Washington, D.C.—The president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today reacted sharply to media reports that the Bush administration is likely to propose a 2003 federal civilian pay raise she called “not only meager, but one that completely overlooks the continuing valuable contributions of federal workers to our nation.”

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said that if media reports of a proposed 2.6 percent average civilian pay raise for next year are accurate, “the union will turn our full resources to the battle in Congress for a fair pay raise” for government employees.

A 2.6 percent average pay raise “would not only signal to federal employees that the administration places very little value in their continued contributions—both long before and continuing since the September 11 terrorist attacks—it would be a serious setback to the government’s efforts to recruit and retain the high quality workers the public wants, needs and expects.”

President Kelley is both a member of the Federal Salary Council and the Board of Governors of the Partnership for Public Service, a new organization designed to encourage job seekers to consider federal careers. In both those capacities, and as president of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers, Kelley has been the leader in the fight for higher pay for federal workers.

The union leader voiced NTEU’s strong support for the message contained in a bipartisan letter to the president from seven members of the House of Representatives, each of whom represents substantial numbers of federal workers, urging him “not to overlook the contributions of the federal workforce.”

Many of those employees, they wrote in urging civilian-military pay parity, work side-by-side with members of the uniformed military “and for the same employer.”

Kelley also said she was disappointed that the reported White House proposal of 2.6 percent would mark a further departure from the 1990 passage of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA)—a law designed to close the gap between public and private sector pay.

Under the FEPCA formula, raises have been calculated by subtracting one-half of a percent from a figure known as the Employment Cost Index (ECI), calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as a measure of changes in both public and private sector costs of wages, salaries and benefits over a 12-month period ending the previous September.

The law also calls for the inclusion of locality pay adjustments to account for regional cost differentials —an element that has not been fully implemented since the passage of FEPCA, and which is playing a key role in keeping government pay lagging sharply behind pay in the private sector.

Last October, BLS reported the ECI for the 12 months ending in September at 3.6 percent, a figure that under FEPCA would have generated a 3.1 percent civilian pay raise for 2003. Kelley attacked the 3.1 percent figure at that time as far too low, particularly in the light of the government’s continued inability to keep the experienced, highly-qualified employees it now has, much less compete with the private sector for the best new workers.

“There are strong reasons why federal workers should get a fair pay raise,” Kelley said, “including recognition of their continuing important contributions to our national life, and the need to attract to public service the quality employees the public needs, expects and demands.”

NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments.