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Washington, D.C: ?The president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) called the results of a new government survey on job satisfaction and mission accomplishment "strong proof' that labor?management partnership is an effective tool in the federal work place.

NTEU head Robert M. Tobias also said the survey of some 34,000 federal employees shows clearly that agencies perform better when managers at every level embrace the idea of working cooperatively with employees, rather than in the outdated top?down structure.

Tobias was commenting on the survey by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), in conjunction with the Office of Personnel Management, Merit Systems Protection Board and Federal Aviation Administration. It had a 40 percent response rate.

"You hear the word 'empowerment' a lot," Tobias said, "and the reality is that in those workplaces where federal employees are truly empowered, where their voices truly are heard, there is a much greater degree of accomplishment and satisfaction."

The 33?item survey, which involved employees in 48 government?wide organizations, showed employee satisfaction percentages between 65 and 75 percent in organizations where there are service goals aimed at meeting customer expectations; where supervisors understand and support employees' outside responsibilities; where individual differences are respected and valued; and where there is a spirit of cooperation in the work unit. .

Low satisfaction scores, from 25 percent to 35 percent, were recorded where there was little cooperative work on mutual problems; where there was little reward for creativity and innovation; and where the organization had failed to make reinvention a priority.

Tobias, who was an early and strong supporter of federal labor?management partnership, said it is clear that while much progress has been made since President Clinton's 1993 Executive Order mandating such partnership, not all agencies have embraced it with the same enthusiasm.

Two that have, he noted, are among the principal jurisdictions of NTEU?the Internal Revenue Service and the Customs Service. NTEU and IRS are working closely, with a number of joint task forces, on restructuring the agency, steps Tobias called "the natural outflow" of cooperative efforts stretching over a number of years.

He also pointed to Operation Brass Ring, a highly?successful six?month concentrated drug interdiction program involving front?line NTEU members arid their Customs management counterparts around the country.

The program used an unprecedented level of labor?management cooperation, generating a wide range of innovative and unpredictable enforcement techniques leading to a 45 percent increase in narcotics seizures over the six?month period, Tobias said.

"Working together is working smart and working effectively," Tobias said. "There's ample proof of it, and the sooner it spreads throughout government, the better off all of us will be -- employees, managers and the public alike."