Senate passes bill to restore back pay to GAO employees
Legislation would offer lump sum to analysts who were denied salary increases under new pay system.
The Senate passed legislation Friday that would restore pay raises to more than 300 analysts at the Government Accountability Office who were excluded under a system that began in 2005, even though they received satisfactory performance ratings.
The bill (H.R. 5683) would guarantee that employees performing at the "meets expectations" level or higher would receive annual pay raises that are at least equal to the General Schedule increase. It also would allow non senior-level employees to include performance-based bonuses in their high-three salary calculations for retirement and would raise the GS-15 pay cap from $149,000 to $158,000.
Pay reforms under David M. Walker, who resigned as comptroller general in March, resulted in a split payband in the mid-level ranks. Employees assigned to the lower half of the salary range were denied raises, even though most received ratings of "meets expectations." The changes fueled complaints that led to a congressional hearing and an employee effort to unionize.
The House passed the legislation on June 9. An amendment proposed Friday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on behalf of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., would require GAO to fully fund the retirement contributions to the Office of Personnel Management for employees who were denied annual adjustments in 2006 and/or 2007.
The bill also would create an inspector general's office at GAO.
The House is expected to approve the modified measure when it returns from its August recess.
Meanwhile, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., introduced legislation Friday that would bring GAO employees under the same process for appealing personnel actions as other legislative branch agencies.
The bill (H.R. 6822) would call for an independent review of employee complaints by transferring jurisdiction to the Office of Compliance, an independent, nonpartisan agency which handles disputes for all other legislative branch employees.
GAO is the only legislative branch agency that currently has its own internal appeals body, known as the Personnel Appeals Board. At a May 2007 hearing, Norton expressed reservations over GAO having its own internal appeals board, where members are appointed by the comptroller general -- the same person against whom wage and discrimination complaints are filed.
Walker's changes to the GAO pay system in 2005 fueled concern over the appeals process for employees with wage and discrimination complaints. Those concerns were heightened with the May 1 release of a report by the Ivy Group showed that there are many race-based disparities in performance ratings, promotions and other employment practices between African-American and Caucasian analysts at GAO.
The bill "represents the most recent bipartisan thinking and action of Congress concerning equal treatment for employees of the legislative branch," Norton said Friday on the House floor.
Members of GAO's union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, have established a work group to evaluate the appeals processes at the PAB and OC. The study involves reviewing the literature and meeting with the executive directors of the two appeals bodies to determine the ramifications of transferring jurisdiction to the OC.