2 Bills: Rehiring federal retirees

[Firescribe]

Legislation would make it easier for agencies to rehire federal retirees
www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0209/022509ar2.htm

By Alyssa Rosenberg
February 25, 2009

Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., introduced two bills on Tuesday to make it easier for agencies to bring back and retain retirees to meet the government's critical workforce needs.

The first bill would allow federal retirees to return to work without having their salaries reduced by the amount of their pension payments. The second piece of legislation would grant employees under the Civil Service Retirement System who work part-time instead of retiring pro-rated credit that would count toward their annuity payments.

"The state of our economy has millions of older Americans considering all their options," said Kohl, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. "For a lot of them, the downturn will mean working longer."

The Partnership for Public Service, which is working with the Treasury Department to bring midcareer private-sector workers into government jobs, praised Kohl for the legislation.

"Under Sen. Kohl's leadership, the Senate Special Committee on Aging is doing the nation a great service by helping federal agencies tap into the extraordinary expertise of older Americans," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership.

The Government Accountability Office echoed that sentiment in a report, conducted at Kohl's request, on the efforts of four departments and agencies with an unusually high number of employees eligible for retirement to retain or rehire older employees to fill gaps in mission-critical occupations.

At the U.S. Agency for International Development, Small Business Administration, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation departments, 46 percent of workers will be eligible to retire by 2012, the report said; 33 percent of employees governmentwide will be eligible to retire by that time. GAO noted that most federal employees do not retire as soon as they become eligible, and the economic downturn could encourage some to remain on the job until their retirement accounts are replenished, or they can save more money.

But, the report said, even if retirement rates are low, if employees in mission-critical occupations leave, earlier hiring freezes mean that there may not be other employees ready to replace them. Rehiring older workers could give veteran workers an opportunity to share their experience with younger workers, and allow agencies more time to recruit their replacements in an increasingly competitive market.

Several agencies are using innovative methods to bring back retirees, according to the report. More at the link

Fair use disclaimer

also

OLDER WORKERS
Enhanced Communication among Federal Agencies Could Improve Strategies for Hiring and Retaining Experienced Workers

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09206.pdf (902K / 52 page pdf file)

[milehighbar]

Rehiring Federal employees at full salary is now a signature away from happening. Within the next 24-72 hours the President will sign the Defense Authorization Bill.

Sick Leave toward retirement for FERS employees is also hours away from becoming law.

PLUS the bill indefinatly suspends ALL A-76 Competitions.

The change in administrations is starting to pay dividends.

Yes We Did!


http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=4338460

[NMAirBear]

This seems to be amazingly good news for those of us who have worked as retiree AD's for a lot of years now under the quadruple standard of government employee compensation in wildland fire. Also, and I ran in to this this year in Texas, WE FEDERAL RETIREES WILL HAVE TO BE TREATED AS FEDERAL EMPLOYEES not as something less as AD's.

The quadruple standard:

1: Federal employees qualified and receiving OT/HP. Go for it folks. Many of us worked many years to get you there and to keep you there at much increased wages.

2: State employees not necessarily qualified but working at trumped up AD rates with FEMA $$ supporting that and no accountability.

3: Rehired annuitants, typically GS-13 and higher, who made sweet deals with the folks they hired before they retired. This has been rampant the past few years in USDI and to some degree in USFS. This sweet deal was not available to those of us who were worker bees for our entire careers.

4: Retiree AD's who have suffered long enough at the low end of the totem pole even though many of them occupy positions of extreme demand, extreme responsibility, and extreme potential liability.

I am so happy to hear that my letter writing to my congresspersons and my membership in FWFSA seems finally to be producing results. The American system of wildland fire management needs me a whole lot more than I need it anymore but I will be happy to work again if treated fairly.

[bighead1]

just a question people. what if anything does this do to the hiring of temps in up coming fire seasons? does it divert moneys form them to bring back the retiees?

[NMAirBear]

bighead....

Absolutely not. All retirees that are still willing to work after 30-40+ years of doing so occupy positions that no temps are even remotely qualified to do. And we are almost all willing trainers/mentors.

[milehighbar]

LM Said in They Said:

Just some clarification on the sick leave issue;

I spent some time reading the Bill that had this rider attached, and one
important date for the FERS employee to remember is 2013. If you plan on
retiring before 2013, you will only be able to apply 50% of your accrued
sick leave toward creditable service. But, after 2013, you will be able
to apply 100% of your accrued sick leave toward creditable service.

LM


You're correct. One proposal had this as a one time 10k cash payment if you had a year of sick leave on the books when you retired. This is what came out of the negotiations as happens with everything in DC. You don't get everything you want, however it sure beats just throwing away sick leave hours when you retire.

[abercrombie]

From theysaid this morning:

Rehired annuitants:

"Rehiring Federal employees at full salary is now a signature away from happening. Within the next 24-72 hours the President will sign the Defense Authorization Bill."

How sweet it is.

However, before we break out the bottle of Veuve Cliquot, I'm assuming a lot here:

1. That "they" have not loaded this down with so many bureaucratic requirements that it is unworkable;

2. That the federal wildland fire agency managers don't do the same, as they did when they required a
PL 4 or 5 prior to implementing;

3. That a streamlined process can be put in place to rehire (e.g., where it doesn't take a week to get a
desperately needed resource);

4. That the IBPWT - at least those with well-known personal and past-documented prejudice toward
retirees - stay the hell out of any interpretation, stay the hell out of sabotaging this as they have so
successfully in the past, and just do their job of laying out the letter of the law in the Business Mgmt
Handbook.

Amen.

Back to low-profile "retirement."

Best to all of you.

Regards,

Hugh Carson

[NorCal Tom]

Thanks to those who worked on this, who spread the word and got the people elected that could move on it. Change can come!

It only makes sense to continue tapping the WISDOM of those that have years of experience.

Hat tip to Casey and and hat tip to those that envisioned Commanders Intent coming to fruition. Now we need a more streamlined system of training and Lessons Learned. We need a Just Culture.

Fire Geek, there was a powerpoint I saw once that showed the decision making process at its worst. DO YOU HAVE THAT? I hate to bring up a negative in such a fine moment as this, but there is MORE WORK TO DO. We need a system in which the FLA and the AAR are the norm and gold standard. Facilitated Learning Analysis, After Action Review. I'm glad to see some FLAs springing forth. Keep them coming! Keep it up Safety Officers, and thank you!

Thanks Steve H, Peter T, Michelle R, the Risk Management folks in Boise and firefighters at all levels that go for sharing the truth. Thanks Tim in Missoula those that have kept sharing and supporting like Capt 64 and Mike . It's hard to do but the rewards are immense.

The Truth can make us SAFER.

IT CAN BE DONE! YES WE CAN DO IT!

[Let's keep an eye on the ways the system can derail the process here. We can oppose those derailments, Hugh.]

Thanks Abs.

[fish01]

I think folks who are local gov. (LG) will continue to work as LG. The PTP,and OT compensation should be greater that a GS scale. I have not read the bill but are the wages going to be with a locality rate?
Taxes. Are the wages going to be subject to SS and medicare tax? The AD scale is not. You keep more of what you earn.
Will the government be liable for UI claims with these wages? The AD wages are not compensable for UI.
Lots for questions. But I will look forward to have the stigma of being just an AD done with. The hiring process for ADs has quirks that make moving from incident to incident difficult and time consuming.

[abercrombie]

From the Ab account:

I see someone asked Fire Geek about an older decision making flowchart on the hotlist. You posted the
updated Learning Analysis Guides in August... August 18. Here's your link. It's also at the Lessons Learned Center.

Important: Learning Analysis Investigation Guides 07/20/09 (149 k pdf file, 7 pages)

I think what the poster was asking about was the earlier animated problem resolution flowchart from 2007:

www.wildlandfire.com/docs/2007/FlowchartResolution.pps

SteveH