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Washington, D.C—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers today urged Congress to stand firm in its expressed determination to continue pay parity for both members of the military and federal civilian workers despite what she has described as the “shortsighted” opposition of the Bush Administration to the concept.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said “the clearly-expressed sense of this Congress” is that, whatever the size of the pay raise in 2002, “ a continuation of the long tradition of military-civilian pay parity is deserved recognition for the work performed for the American people by federal workers. NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments.

Kelley is both a member of the Federal Salary Council and a leading advocate for improved compensation for federal workers as the single most important tool in dealing with recruitment and retention problems that in many federal agencies have reached crisis proportions.

“There is abundant evidence of the problems government is having in attracting and retaining the quality employees that Americans need and deserve,” Kelley said, “as well as evidence that the problem will get worse over time unless we address it forcefully now.”

In its initial budget proposal, the administration called for a 4.6 percent pay increase for members of the military in 2002, but only a 3.6 percent raise for federal civilian workers. In budget resolutions, both the House and Senate expressed their support for military-civilian pay parity—and two weeks ago, the House approved a fiscal 2002 transportation appropriations bill which contains funding for a 4.6 percent pay raise for federal employees in agencies covered by that bill.

The administration expressed its opposition to inclusion of that provision, and followed that up by proposing to increase the 2002 pay raise for the military to five percent, while retaining the 3.6 percent proposal for civilian employees.

Kelley said NTEU will continue to push for pay parity for federal civilian workers, regardless of the size of the pay increase granted members of the military. “In the competitive employment environment that is projected to continue,” Kelley said, “pay parity not only is the fair thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.”

She noted that during last year’s presidential campaign, the Bush camp estimated that military pay was at least 10 percent behind that earned by comparable private sector workers—and pay for federal civilian employees lagged nearly 22 percent behind that paid in the private sector.

“Those numbers alone ought to provide us with a roadmap for what we have to do to make the government a competitive employer,” Kelley said.