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Washington, D.C.—An administration proposal that would allow a government-wide Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) pay and retirement system to be created and maintained through administrative regulation rather than statute—and that provides no guarantee that Customs and Border Protection officers would receive LEO status—raises serious concerns for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley offered that assessment in testimony before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization which is examining a report on these issues by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in which it proposes to give itself broad authority to create and maintain a government-wide law officer enforcement pay and retirement system.

Kelley took issue with many aspects of the OPM proposal, noting its similarities with regard to 'flexibilities' to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposal for new personnel regulations. To date, both DHS and OPM have failed to provide meaningful feedback on revisions to the proposal offered by NTEU and other unions representing DHS employees.

The union proposals have been presented as part of the statutory “meet and confer” process mandated by the Homeland Security Act. That ongoing process is scheduled to end on Friday.

Kelley took particular issue with the idea that the federal LEO retirement program should be modified—if at all—by regulation. “I am aware of no example in the federal government where retirement benefits are set by regulation as opposed to statute,” she said, adding that there are “few things more important” to recruitment and retention than for employees and prospective employees to be able to rely on retirement rules.

“The ability to alter LEO retirement by regulations could lead to a patchwork of ever-changing regulations if each administration could simply alter the federal law enforcement officer retirement system by regulatory fiat,” she said, further cautioning that such ongoing changes would distract and place further burdens on managers and supervisors who should be focused on their overriding mission of homeland security.

The NTEU leader also criticized the OPM’s conclusion that the General Schedule pay and classification system needs to be replaced with a “pay banding” system covering LEOs throughout government.

Any changes to the basic pay and classification systems, she said, “must be justified by mission needs, and designed to minimize burdens on managers, supervisors and employees.” A system such as pay banding, which relies heavily on managerial discretion, fails to meet that test, Kelley added.

She cautioned, as well, that any changes in premium pay rules “must be handled carefully, especially in light of its complex interaction with employees’ base pay and retirement pay.” Kelley noted that there is no issue of disparate premium pay systems within the DHS’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—the department’s largest bureau, with some 20,000 employees—because starting on Sunday all will be covered for overtime and premium pay by the Customs Officer Pay Reform Act of 1993 (COPRA).

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including more than 15,000 legacy Customs employees in DHS.