Federal management reforms take extended spring break

In January, the Clinton administration indicated it would pursue two key management reforms: revamping civil service rules and expanding the scope of bargaining with federal unions. As April draws to a close, friction between managers and unions has slowed momentum on both initiatives.

Vice President Al Gore announced the administration's plan for civil service reform in a Jan. 14 speech. The reform proposals included nearly 40 changes, such as performance-based pay, more buyouts and broad band pay structures.

"We plan to start working with our agencies and our employees' representatives to craft this proposal right away," Gore said.

In January, the administration also began floating a draft memorandum on labor-management relations. The memo would put political pressure on agencies that have ignored a 1993 executive order by President Clinton calling on federal managers to negotiate with unions over so-called "permissive" issues, such as the number of jobs and the classification of positions. Many supervisors view these issues as purely management responsibilities.

An official told GovExec.com in February that the administration was aiming to send out the memorandum that month.

But the memorandum still has not yet been issued, in part because agency officials and managers' groups have expressed intense opposition to expanding the scope of bargaining. Union representatives, meanwhile, have postponed meetings with administration officials on civil service reform proposals, in part because they would like to first see the administration enforce the President's order on bargaining.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal union, has been busy with other priorities besides civil service reform, said Brian DeWyngaert, executive assistant to AFGE president Bobby Harnage. Besides, he argued, agencies and the Clinton administration have ignored previous reform efforts, such as the executive order on bargaining and the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act.

"We're looking at things from the perspective that we already have some laws on the books and executive orders on the books that mandate certain things. Those laws and orders are not being complied with," DeWyngaert said. "We're not sure we need to move on to a whole new set of discussions just to have new rules adopted that then won't be complied with either."

Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) is spearheading both the civil service reform and expanded bargaining initiatives. NPR Director Morley Winograd said there is no news to report on either initiative.

An Office of Personnel Management spokesperson said the administration is informally meeting with unions and other stakeholders on civil service reform ideas.

"We continue to meet individually with stakeholders," the spokesperson said. "The information we're getting from them is helpful and fruitful."

But representatives of AFGE, the National Treasury Employees Union, the Federal Managers Association, and the Coalition for Effective Change (a group of federal managerial and professional associations), say they have had little contact with the administration on either issue.