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Washington, D.C.—Whether the issue is non-competitive pay, the rush to hand jobs over to the private sector, potential loss of collective bargaining and other workplace rights, high medical costs or similar problems, the federal government won’t be able to compete for the high-quality employees it needs without substantial changes, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers said today.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) made that assertion before the Civil Service Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee, which is examining issues relating to the recruitment and retention of federal workers.

Just a single issue—contracting out—“has eroded the morale of the best employees, disrupted agency operations and discouraged prospective employees from applying,” she said. Added to that are the recently released proposals for a new labor relations system in the Department of Defense (DoD) that would effectively strip away all meaningful rights for workers.

These unrelenting attacks on the rights and jobs of federal employees continue to occur despite the clear evidence that the federal government consistently ranks behind the private sector as the employer of choice for the talented, committed workers federal agencies need, the NTEU leader said.

At the same time, Kelley took note of the support for federal employees of Subcommittee Chair Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), and in particular her support of military-civilian pay parity and of an effort by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to ensure that federal workers have a level playing field with the private sector in the competition for their jobs.

She said of Rep. Davis: “You have made clear your intention to work to make sure that federal agencies have the proper tools to allow them not only to hire but to inspire the best workforce in the nation.” Turning the government’s human capital crisis around “will require determination and resources,” Kelley said, “and I look forward to working with you toward that goal.”

The NTEU leader called for House approval of S. 129, legislation already approved by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that she said “would go a long way toward addressing family and work life responsibility issues” by providing federal workers with compensatory time off for the time spent in official travel status that is not otherwise compensated.

On the matter of pay, Kelley noted that even before President Bush’s 2005 budget proposal of a 1.5 percent civilian pay raise next year, bipartisan members of both the House and Senate had urged the administration to continue the tradition of military-civilian pay parity. The president proposed a 3.5 percent pay raise in 2005 for members of the military—a raise that NTEU believes should apply to all federal employees.

She reminded the committee that in each of the past three years, Congress has set a higher pay raise than the administration proposed. On a bipartisan basis, she said, “Congress has made clear

its belief that because federal civilian employees work side-by-side with the men and women of our

armed forces to ensure the security of the United States, they deserve the same recognition and the same pay raise.”

Her testimony addressed a number of employment issues, including the adverse impact of sharply-rising health care costs. She urged the federal government to follow most large private employers in raising to an average of 80 percent from the present 72 percent its share of health insurance premiums.

President Kelley discussed current legislative efforts to give federal agencies greater flexibility to use such important programs as recruitment, relocation and retention bonuses. However, she emphasized, “without a dedicated stream of funding” for these and similar human resource programs, agencies will continue to be forced to turn to their training and salary and expense budgets in efforts to find money to pay for them.

As the largest independent union of federal employees, NTEU represents some 150,000 workers in 29 agencies and departments.