Brown Attends Federal Salary Council Meeting at OPM

Richard Brown, President/DBR attended the first Federal Salary Council meeting of 2002 at OPM last Thursday.  The Federal Salary Council is made up of 3 experts in labor relations or pay policy and 6 representatives of federal employee organizations.  The purpose of the council is to provide recommendations to the President’s Pay Agent on the locality pay program for general schedule employees.

The Federal Salary Council meeting began with the induction of 5 new members to the committee, including a new chairman, Samuel J. Wallace.  Other inductees included Mary Rose of OPM, Rudy Maestas of DOL Wage and Hour Bureau, Thomas Bastas of ACT, and James Pasco of FOP.  Director of OPM Kay Coles James presented new council members with framed appointment certificates signed by President George W. Bush.  President/DBR Richard Brown has been a member of the Federal Salary Council since July of 1998.

The Federal Salary Council considered the requests of four counties to be moved into different locality pay areas.  Moving into a different locality pay area can often amount to a pay raise ranging from a few cents to a couple dollars an hour for all federal employees in that county that are on the GS schedule.  The Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts was the first county (actually 21 townships, counties have been abolished in MA) to testify. Their request was to be included in the Hartford locality pay area.  The next to testify was Monroe County, FL.  Their request was to become part of the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale pay area.  The final 2 counties considered were Barnstable, MA and Larimer, CO.  They requested to move into the Boston and Denver locality pay areas respectively.  Neither of these counties sent representatives to testify before the council.  The council is currently reviewing each of these cases and will likely reach a verdict on them in the next couple months.

The Federal Salary Council is a great way for NFFE-IAM to represent membership by influencing legislation.  “The Federal Salary Council is where we can address problems like the one at the Castle Point VA, where people working side-by-side make several dollars an hour less than others,” said President/DBR Brown.  “The council allows us to address and try to correct pay parity problems that exist, as long as they are in counties that meet the necessary criteria for change.”