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Washington, D.C.— The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has requested the assistance of a neutral third-party to move deadlocked pay parity negotiations forward at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley said the union has submitted a “Request for Assistance” with the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) following the continued refusal of the agency to provide NTEU with adequate information and its unwillingness to consider any alternative other than its proposal.

“NTEU has made every reasonable effort to avoid this impasse and obtain a reasonable agreement for SEC employees. We have encountered an unwillingness on the part of the agency to provide the information needed to adequately evaluate its proposal, and an unwillingness on the part of the agency to consider alternatives,” said President Kelley.

The overriding principle for NTEU, said Kelley, is fairness. She noted that the salaries of NTEU-represented employees comprise approximately 60 percent of the SEC salary budget. The union has sought for bargaining unit employees a similar percentage of the some $25 million funds identified for pay parity.

“During the course of these negotiations,” said Kelley, “NTEU offered a number of ideas as to how pay parity funds could be allocated between base salary increases, locality pay increases, and bonuses and awards, as well as the salary structure itself. However, the SEC has never made an offer that comes close to providing bargaining unit employees their fair share of pay parity money.”

The union leader said SEC’s unilateral implementation of its pay parity plan on May 19 will not deter NTEU’s efforts to negotiate a fair and effective pay parity plan for employees.

“SEC management is moving forward with a plan that is highly suspect. It is a system that is front-loaded with a 6 percent pay increase, but fails to provide a framework for SEC employees to attain pay parity with other federal financial regulatory agencies. Such pay parity was clearly the intent of Congress, and it is the goal of NTEU in these negotiations,” said Kelley.

The SEC plan would eliminate the current pay system with its 3 percent within-grade step increases and replace it with 31 steps to get to the top of the grade, with each step being merely half of the current 3 percent. Moreover, the current merit-based performance evaluation system would be replaced by a system that provides management with arbitrary and non-reviewable discretion in deciding employees’ raises.

“This strikes at the heart of merit-based government employment. It raises the specter of favoritism and cronyism. Currently, an employee gets his or her step increase unless management meets its responsibility of proving the employee is not performing. Under the SEC proposal, anyone in the three levels of management above an employee can veto a step increase without meeting any standard. And the decision is unreviewable. Currently, employees can appeal such actions to the Merit System Protection Board,” said Kelley.

Saying she is disappointed that an agreement has not been reached with the SEC, President Kelley said she is hopeful the FSIP will immediately appoint a private mediator/arbitrator or one of its staff members to resolve the dispute.