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Government Watchdog Analysts Reach Accord on Interim Contract |
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After four months of negotiations, some 1,800 analysts at the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) will vote next week on a tentative interim contract agreement. The workers are represented by GAO Employees Organization/International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 1921.
If ratified, the interim agreement will be in effect until a master agreement is reached. The tentative pact sets up the basic rules for the new union’s relationship with GAO management, such as dues collection, use of GAO resources and grievance arbitration.
Interim Council Chairman Ronald La Due Lake says in a statement:
We are pleased with the developing relationship between the union and management and feel this agreement achieves some significant gains for GAO employees.
Last September, workers in GAO’s Washington, D.C., headquarters and its 11 field offices voted to be represented by the IFPTE. This was the first time in GAO’s 87-year history that the agency’s analysts have voted for union representation.
According to the union, the key issue for workers is pay. They chose to form a union after former Comptroller General David Walker changed the agency’s pay-for-performance system. As a result of the changes, some employees did not get a raise in part because they were deemed overpaid compared with similar private-sector workers.
Last month, Congress voted to provide raises and a lump-sum payment to GAO workers, along with a floor guarantee to those who perform at expected levels.
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