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Washington, D.C.—Many frontline homeland security officers who voluntarily use their foreign language skills as part of their jobs may soon be rewarded for their efforts because of the persistence of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). Following a unilateral decision by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) two years ago to stop testing CBP officers on their foreign language proficiency, NTEU filed a national grievance which was settled on the eve of arbitration.

“These employees, every day, talk with hundreds of people who wish to enter the United States. Many of these employees speak other languages and voluntarily use these skills because they are committed to the security of this country. It seems counter-productive for the Department of Homeland Security to not acknowledge and reward their diligence,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. CBP is a major component of DHS.

“For an administration that is pushing the idea of pay-for-performance,” Kelley said, “it amazed me that the leadership of DHS made a conscious decision not to reward these employees who possess a much-needed skill and are performing above and beyond their job descriptions.”

In the early 1990s, NTEU fought for congressional approval of a foreign language award provision in the Customs Officer Pay Reform Act (COPRA). Once COPRA was passed, NTEU successfully secured implementing regulations and negotiated a program—the Foreign Language Award Program (FLAP)—with the U.S. Customs Service to reward its employees who speak and use foreign language skills on the job. FLAP provides CBP officers with continuing cash awards ranging from three to five percent of their base salary if they demonstrate foreign language proficiency and use that language for at least 10 percent of their job duties.

But in 2003, CBP decided to stop testing employees for language proficiencies thus denying these employees the ability to be part of the program and prompting NTEU’s grievance on behalf of the CBP officers the union represents.

To date, NTEU remains the only DHS union to negotiate a foreign language award program for the members of its bargaining unit.

Under terms of the settlement, specific groups of CBP officers can now have their foreign language skills tested and, if their skills are up to par and they meet the other requirements of the program, they will receive additional compensation. The settlement also provides for certain retroactive payments to CBP Officers found to have been denied their rights under the FLAP program.

To read the settlement agreement, visit http://cbpunion.org/documents/flapagreement.pdf

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including some 14,000 in CBP.