Social Security tech workers demand promotions, pay raises

Three years after their first appeal, a group of information technology workers at the Social Security Administration continue to fight for job reclassifications that they say will better align their job titles and salaries with their actual duties.

A group of local unions representing systems administrators in SSA's hearing offices filed a grievance Jan. 21 against the agency claiming that systems administrators were given extra duties but no raises or promotions. Officials from the American Federation of Government Employees, the union which represents the workers, asked that the systems administrators be temporarily promoted to a job classification category that includes the extra duties they routinely perform and that they be given back pay with interest dating to April 26, 2002.

A spokeswoman for SSA declined to discuss the grievance because the issue is still pending.

The recent grievance culminated a three-year effort by a group of systems administrators to upgrade and reclassify their current GS-335 computer assistant classification so they can get higher salaries and qualify for a special IT pay raise, created by the Office of Personnel Management in November 2000. The raise applies only to certain positions at grades GS-5 through GS-12 in the following occupational series: computer specialists (GS-334), computer engineers (GS-854) and computer scientists (GS-1550). It was part of an effort to stay competitive with the private sector in recruiting and retaining talented technology workers.

A group of systems administrators asked the agency to reclassify them in February 2000. SSA denied their requests eight months later, though the agency continued to review the issue internally. The group continued to push the issue, with several systems administrators filing grievances on their own.

"One of the biggest frustrations that a lot of us have is that so many people that we work with are behind us on this," said David Jackson, an SSA hearing office systems administrator in Portland, Ore.

Jackson and his colleagues remain hopeful that the issue will soon be resolved.

"We would like nothing more than to be able to do this stuff for the office and make the office run better, but at the same time we want to be recognized for our contribution," Jackson said.

A group of employees at the Naval Air Warfare Center in Orlando, Fla., were converted to the GS-334 series in February 2001 to make them eligible for the pay raise after union officials raised concerns about pay disparity.