SEC, union sign new collective bargaining agreement

The National Treasury Employees Union announced on Friday that it had signed a new collective bargaining agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that expands the agency's telework program and makes the SEC "one of the most employee-friendly agencies in the federal government," according to NTEU President Colleen Kelley.

The telework program allows SEC employees to work from home as many as five days a week.

The agreement also creates a new "4/10" schedule allowing employees to work four ten-hour days each week, in addition to a "5-4/9" schedule that permits employees to work eight nine-hour days and take off one day every two weeks.

The SEC had wanted a provision that would have allowed supervisors to remove employees from the 5-4/9 schedule at management's discretion, but it was not enacted in the final agreement, NTEU officials said.

The agreement also allows SEC employees to use annual leave donated to a bank for emergency use and provides employees with compensatory time off for travel.

Kelley said the new agreement represents a significant step forward for SEC employees.

"While employees in other agencies have seen their rights and benefits stalled or eroded, SEC employees will see substantial improvements to a workplace contract that was already strong," she said.

NTEU spokesman Dina Long said the agreement does not establish a pay-for-performance system to replace the one that a mediator threw out in September, ruling that it discriminated against African-Americans and employees 40 and older. Compensation issues are part of a separate agreement, Long said.

SEC spokesmen John Heine said the agency had no comment on the agreement.