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Washington, D.C.—The only way the embattled Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) can meet the extremely high public expectations facing it is for agency leadership to value the professionalism and commitment of SEC employees—by its actions as well as by its words—the leader of the union representing some 2,000 SEC employees said today.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) offered that assessment as the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee began its confirmation hearing on William H. Donaldson to be SEC chairman.

“The SEC has been thrust into the national spotlight by highly-publicized lapses in corporate behavior,” President Kelley said. “Under the next chairman, the agency is facing extraordinary public expectations of its service to the nation—and the only way to meet those expectations is to treat employees fairly and with respect.” There has been “a lot of talk” about that, she said, “but not enough meaningful progress.”

What is needed, the NTEU leader said, is an agency working with NTEU to develop and implement “a fair and equitable pay parity system,” as well as implementing the newly-won term labor agreement covering SEC employees in ways that fulfill its intent of improving working conditions at the agency.

NTEU successfully worked to persuade Congress to enact pay parity legislation and to provide SEC funding over the president’s original fiscal 2003 budget request. The union’s efforts helped SEC management acquire the tools it needs to deal with recurring recruitment and retention problems, President Kelley said. “It must now use those tools in an effective manner.”

The NTEU president emphasized the union’s intention to return to the bargaining table with the SEC over pay parity, as provided for in a decision by the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP). “The pay parity plan implemented by the SEC is neither fair nor equitable,” she said. “We have stated our intention to return to the bargaining table over the issue once the agency’s budget was established, and that is what we will do.”

Since NTEU successfully organized SEC employees in July 2000, after a lengthy fight by the agency, the union has sought to establish a working labor-management relationship there, but has encountered what Kelley called “an unfortunate degree of intransigence” from the agency.

“I’m hopeful,” she said, “that the incoming chairman will recognize the value of treating SEC employees with the respect they earn by their workplace performance every day. Anything less and this agency will not be able to serve the public in ways the public wants and deserves, and which are important to the nation.”

The 2,000 SEC employees represented by NTEU work at the agency’s headquarters and in field offices around the country.

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