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Washington, D.C.—Today’s markup by the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets of legislation that would permit the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to use accelerated hiring processes while providing newly-hired employees with broad civil service rights and protections is an excellent example of labor-management cooperation, the head of the union representing SEC employees said.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said the legislation now reflects an agreement reached by NTEU and the SEC on the hiring flexibilities. Both the agreement and the bill “advance the interests and needs of the agency, meet congressional intent that SEC promptly expand its staff of accountants, economists and examiners and ensure that the newly-hired employees will enjoy competitive service status,” Kelley said.

The NTEU leader said this example of the ability to work together toward a common goal could serve as a model in the federal sector. NTEU represents some 2,000 SEC employees nationwide.

In recent testimony, President Kelley told the Capital Markets Subcommittee that while NTEU supports expanding the SEC staff, it did not believe the personnel flexibility legislation then under consideration was the best way to proceed. The initial proposal would have allowed the SEC to hire employees into these three professions by placing them in the excepted service—an employment status that carries with it fewer workplace rights and protections than does the competitive service.

Members of the subcommittee asked NTEU and the SEC to work to reach agreement on an appropriate way to expand the agency staff quickly. Once agreement was reached, Kelley said, the union and agency took it to the subcommittee, where it was introduced as an amendment to the pending bill by subcommittee chairman Richard Baker (R-LA) and ranking minority member Paul Kanjorski (D-PA).

“The SEC needs additional professional staff to handle its increasing workload, and employees need to know they will have workplace rights and protections,” President Kelley said. The amended legislation, she added, “will work to make these jobs more attractive to high-quality candidates.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 federal employees in 29 agencies and departments.