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Washington, D.C.-In a letter to President Bush today, the leaders of the nation's two largest unions of federal workers urged full implementation of a bipartisan law signed by his father a decade ago to close the continuing gap between private and public sector pay.

Presidents Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and Bobby Harnage of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) called implementation of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA) "the most critically important step" that can be taken to attract quality employees to public service. They asked for a meeting with the administration "to discuss this important issue."

FEPCA, signed by then-President George Bush in 1990, was designed to close, in stages over ten years, the public-private sector pay gap. It has, however, never been fully implemented as projected.

Kelley and Harnage, whose unions together represent more than 850,000 federal workers, pointed out that by 2004, fully 53 percent of the federal workforce will be eligible for either regular or early retirement, making recruitment and retention of skilled workers a priority for the new administration.

"There is bipartisan understanding of the problems that are looming," Kelley said. "We simply cannot wait until they overwhelm us to act. Getting the taxpayers' business done effectively and efficiently is far too important to risk."

Among other steps, FEPCA established locality pay to compensate for regional cost differentials as part of a design to restructure the federal pay system to make it more responsive to local labor markets.

Kelley and Harnage noted in their letter that paying federal employees at levels competitive with the private sectorCapart from its fairness in the light of the vital services provided taxpayers day in and day out-has taken on even greater importance in the tight labor market of recent years.

Higher private sector salaries has made it increasingly difficult for the federal government both to attract and then retain the skilled, experienced workers it needs, they said.