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Lack Of Agency Funding, Concerns Over Job Security Prime Factors In Low Workforce Morale, Kelley Says

Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees said today a new report documenting declining morale among the federal workforce underscores her repeated calls to provide federal agencies and their employees with sufficient resources to do the jobs the public expects of them.

“Federal employees want to do good work, and have shown repeatedly they are capable of it,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), “but they can do only so much with the limited resources provided to them by Congress and the administration.

Kelley was commenting on a report released this week by the Washington-based Brookings Institution showing decreased satisfaction with their jobs among federal workers, and in particular a loss of confidence in their own ability to make a difference.

The report was based on pre- and post-Sept. 11 interviews of a random sample of federal employees under the direction of Brookings’ Center for Public Service.

It showed that the proportion of federal workers who identified themselves as being “very satisfied” with their jobs had dropped six percentage points in the past year, to 43 percent. Meanwhile, the number who said

they “personally contribute a great deal” to accomplishing their agency’s mission declined by 11 percentage points, to 45 percent.

“These results, while disappointing, are not surprising,” President Kelley said, citing not just the long-term inadequacy of agency resources, but the continuing disparity between public and private sector pay, and the increased pressure on federal agencies to contract out more and more government jobs.

“It’s very difficult to remain optimistic,” the NTEU leader said, “when you don’t know if your agency will be looking to shift your job to the private sector.”

Kelley has been the most vocal critic of efforts by the administration to increase federal contracting, and in particular has criticized a directive from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) providing quotas for the numbers of jobs agencies must make available to private contractors over the next two years.

“There can no longer be any meaningful debate over whether or not the federal government faces a human capital crisis,” President Kelley said. “Our attention now needs to be focused on ways to retain the experienced, quality employees currently serving the American people as members of the federal workforce, and on how to attract the best new employees to public service.”

If any further proof of that were needed, she said, “we need only grasp the message contained in this report.”

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