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Washington, D.C.—In a letter to congressional budget conferees, the head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today called “totally unacceptable” a potential agreement partially replacing sequestration funding reductions with further cuts to federal employee compensation, as news reports suggest.

Citing ongoing media reports, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said that under a potential deal, “only a small portion of the sequestration funding levels would be restored—which would mean federal employees would likely continue to face more unpaid furlough days and resulting loss of pay through 2014 and 2015.”

Further, she emphasized, cuts to federal employee compensation and other negative impacts on federal and postal employees could account for as much as 50 percent of the entire amount of spending cuts under consideration to replace sequestration.

“That is totally unacceptable,” she wrote to conferees, urging them to oppose further cuts to federal employee and retiree compensation. A copy of the letter was also sent to every member of the House and Senate.

Already, the NTEU leader reminded them, federal workers and retirees have sacrificed more than any other group in deficit reduction measures, including $99 billion from a three-year pay freeze and another $15 billion in increased pension contributions from new federal hires.

Even beyond these direct contributions, federal workers suffered unpaid furlough days during fiscal 2013 as a result of sequestration, and were locked out of their jobs for 16 days in October during a “morale-killing” government shutdown. Moreover, she said, even while their pay was frozen, their insurance premiums increased every year, as did the cost of their living expenses.

“They are now extremely anxious about whether they will be shut out of work again on January 15th if Congress again misses its funding deadline,” the NTEU president said.

One element of a proposal said to be on the table would add insult to injury for federal workers by increasing their pension contributions, a move that effectively would result in a pay cut. “Requiring them to continue to bear such a disproportionate burden of deficit reduction, which they did not cause, is grossly unfair and will lead to a recruitment and retention crisis in the federal workforce,” Kelley said.

NTEU has been a highly-visible and vocal advocate for ending sequestration, with today’s letter marking the second time Kelley has written to budget conferees. In a letter last month, she urged their support for a balanced approach to ending the damaging sequester, which would allow agencies to perform their important work for the public.

Since then, however, “media reports consistently indicate that the conference committee is considering once again using the beleaguered federal workforce as the disproportionate source of spending offsets while allowing egregious tax loopholes to continue unabated,” she wrote in today’s letter.

Along with the Kelley letter, two influential members of the House and Senate also wrote to leaders of the budget conference this week, urging them to reject proposals to demand further sacrifice by federal workers. The letters came from Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), both of whom are strong supporters of federal employees.

“I welcome the efforts of Rep. Wolf and Sen. Mikulski on this critical matter, and I thank them for their continuing recognition of the work and contributions of federal employees,” President Kelley said.

NTEU is the nation’s largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.