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Washington, D.C.?The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and two local NTEU chapters have together contributed $2,000 to a DOE fund established to help victims of recent devastating fires in northern New Mexico, near the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

NTEU Chapter 213 represents more than 2,000 employees at DOE's Washington, D.C., headquarters, while NTEU Chapter 228 represents nearly 1,200 more at the agency's facility in Germantown, Md.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said she hopes the contributions to the DOE Northern New Mexico Recovery Fund "will help the fire victims of Los Alamos put their lives back together and allow them to resume the productive and vital work and family lives they had before this tragedy."

The fire victims "are colleagues and friends" with whom NTEU members have worked side by side, Kelley said. She asked that Richardson convey to the victims not only the sympathy "of all of the NTEU family nationwide" for their loss, but the knowledge that the union "stands ready to help as best we can."

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 155,000 employees in 24 agencies and departments.

The reason for the disturbing trend, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told a Senate Subcommittee, is that the federal compensation package ?including the critical elements of pay, retirement and health benefits?lags farther and farther behind the private sector.

"Federal employees, just like their private sector counterparts, must believe that substantial rewards exist for excellence and productivity," Kelley told the Subcommittee on Government Management of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.

Without appropriate compensation and incentives, she said, the federal government "will find it increasingly difficult to remain competitive" with private employers.

The NTEU president cited studies, including one by the government's General Accounting Office (GAO) going back to 1994, and more recent analyses by Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the George Washington University public administration department, showing lagging interest in employment with the federal government.

The single most important and pressing step, she said, would be "a decision to fully implement" the 1994 Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA), which called for the closing, in stages over 10 years, of the public?private pay gap. "That would do more to address recruitment and retention in the federal government than all remaining incentive programs combined," she said.

Since its enactment, however, no annual federal pay raise has been even close to the level called for under the FEPCA formula, and the pay gap continues to be sizeable, she said.

Beyond implementing FEPCA, Kelley said, Congress needs to "provide adequate discretionary funding" to agencies to allow them to implement various programs in existing law, including recruitment, retention and relocation bonuses and awards programs recognizing various aspects of excellence in performance.

"Agencies simply do not have the resources to adequately fund these important incentives," she said. "They are constantly forced to rob Peter to pay Paul."

The union leader urged more federal sector use of "family?friendly programs" such as alternative work schedules, telecommuting options, flexiplace, leave banks, child care subsidies and the chance to use personal sick leave to care for ill family members.

"These benefits provide a sense of community both inside and outside the office," she said, emphasizing the positive impact on agency performance of reduced absenteeism, increased morale and motivation and higher rates of employee retention.

NTEU represents some 155,000 employees in 24 agencies and departments, and has long been the leader in the fight for higher pay and a broader range of benefits for federal employees.