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Washington, D.C.-The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has called "unnecessary and baseless" proposals that may subject thousands of NTEU-represented employees at the Department of Energy (DOE) to what she called "unwarranted" lie detector tests. NTEU represents more than 3,800 DOE employees.

Meeting this week with DOE Secretary Bill Richardson, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said she finds "no justification" for the idea of putting employees "through this process of dubious validity when no NTEU member at DOE has ever even been accused of being disloyal."

Kelley, who said that NTEU is, naturally, "as supportive as any other patriotic American organization" of the need for legitimate steps to protect nuclear secrets, expressed her concern with the proposal as NTEU prepares formal comments on the issue for submission to DOE as part of the federal rulemaking process by an Oct. 4 deadline.

DOE has held four public hearings on its proposed use of polygraphs for what it has called the protection of classified material. The most recent was this week in Washington, and it, like the three previous hearings this month, generated strong criticism from scientists and others.

At the same time, Kelley voiced NTEU's concerns to Richardson about a second issue which she described as "causing insecurity among our members." That matter deals with a section of the fiscal 2000 Defense Authorization Bill approved by Congress creating a new Agency for Nuclear Stewardship (ANS) within DOE.

Kelley said she and Secretary Richardson agreed to work together in an effort to ensure that the full range of worker rights at DOE are given the respect they need and deserve.

The union president stressed in her meeting with the secretary NTEU's interest in having a "productive and cooperative labor-management relationship" in DOE, one in which "each side respects the other and all parties work together to create a better workplace."

Lastly, Kelley told Richardson that a number of problems in that relationship at DOE "predate your service as secretary" and she expressed confidence that the relationship will improve as a result of a good-faith effort by both union and agency.

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