NCUA Gets First Contract With Examiners’ Union

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA yesterday said it has completed the first collective bargaining agreement with its fledgling employees union, giving its 730 covered employees, most of them examiners, 5% annual raises for the life of the three-year pact.
 
Because the raises are larger than the 3.5% merit pay hikes proposed in the pending budget, the contract will add about $800,000 in pay and benefits to the agency’s spending for 2008. The contract with the National Treasury Employees Union, Chapter 303, maintains a mobile workforce, as most examiners work out of their homes.
 
At the same time, according to NCUA, the contract preserves management’s right to assign and approve work in order to manage work flow and team schedules.
 
Colleen Kelley, president of the government workers union, said the three-year negotiations were difficult and prolonged. “This was a very difficult agreement to bargain and NTEU had to fight off a number of agency proposals that would be harmful to front line employees, including pay cuts and limited grievance and arbitration rights,” she said in a statement. “Additionally NTEU successfully fought to retain the designation of examiners’ homes as official work sites and held firm against a proposal that would have eliminated nearly all mileage reimbursement payments for examiners who use their private vehicles for agency travel from the home work site to credit unions. NCUA has saved millions of dollars by having employees work from their homes and these proposals would have penalized employees for no reason.”