GovernmentExecutive.com

Labor Department workers rallied in front of the Capitol building Wednesday, protesting the agency's decision to outsource 250 administrative jobs.

Union leaders with the American Federation of Government Employees said they had taken initial steps in filing a lawsuit alleging race-, gender- and age-based discrimination in the decision. Of the affected employees, 81 percent are women, 73 percent are African American and more than 55 percent are 40 or older, the union said.

Alex Bastani, president of the AFGE local bargaining unit that represents the affected employees, said the public-private competition process, governed by the Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-76 rulebook, is unfair and disproportionately affects minority employees.

He said the local bargaining unit has filed an institutional grievance that will be reviewed by Labor's Office of Labor Management Relations and then possibly proceed to binding arbitration. If the employees are not satisfied with the result of the arbitration, the case could go before the Federal Labor Relations Authority and then potentially before a federal appeals court, he said.

"I'm confident we can win at the binding arbitration, but if it's necessary to go beyond that, we will," Bastani said after the rally.

Under last month's award decision, Labor will pay Reston, Va.-based GAP Solutions Inc. $71 million over five years to perform the work of about 330 people, though only 250 of those positions -- 100 administrative positions at Labor headquarters in Washington and about 150 positions at field offices -- are currently filled, Bastani said. GAP Solutions is a Small Business Administration-certified, minority-owned small business, according to a small business contracting Web site.

Bastani said the competition process at work in this case was flawed and that under A-76 procedures, two of the offices at which positions were placed up for competition should have been excluded because they were undergoing reorganization.

He said President Bush's recent signing of a law that bans public-private competitions at the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration should halt the outsourcing of MSHA administrative positions included in the GAP Solutions award. The law was passed in late May, however, about two weeks after the contract decision date.

A Labor Department official confirmed that a grievance has been filed and that the complaint will progress according to terms in the union's collective bargaining agreement.

The contract is just the third in 26 public-private competitions completed by the Labor Department since 2003 to be awarded in favor of the private sector, an agency official said. "Our employees do an excellent job competing," he added.

COMMENTS

• The real cost savings through A76 is not having to pay out future medical and retirement benefits. It's spelled out in balck and white (INK). A76 has nothing to do with race as some have implied. Yes there are some useless staff in our government, and this will only rid a few of them. The rest have been in the civil service system for 25 or more years so they will stay, because of seniority the gov't will find them another job. The freeloaders who always take the easy way out are looking for uncle sugar to give them a few dollars to retire, and the gov't will happily do so. "Buyouts" and retirements are the big buzz words when an A76 happens, I'm witnessing this first hand. It's easier for a contractor to fire and employee and those "dead weights" who get hired will eventually not cut the mustard and be sent packing. So if your that old or young "productive" employee, you have an opportunity to excell. I'm certainly do not buy the cost supposed savings of the A76 process. But our gov't has to put out smoke and mirrors to save money in one place to be able to spend more somewhere else. Congress gives themself a raise every year! If your not happy with the way our country is run, GO VOTE or move somewhere where you can live on pennies a day before we put up the fences. CJ Posted September 17, 2007 8:44 PM
• There is no real savings here, just paper savings. The company does not provide what benefits they do to workers out of the kindness of their heart, this is all built into the the bid they give to the government. On top of that, they have layers of management that the government pays for to "manage" the contract. Where I work, we pay a share for upper level managers, and have no idea what they actually do to support the installation. In this case the company put in a bid that averages 26 dollars an hour assuming they keep 250 workers. I'll tell you what, If I'm a GS4 or 5, I'd go ahead and save the government money, just give me 26 bucks an hour and i'll take care of my own benefits! And if the company decides they can do the job on the backs of 150 workers, they are not going to change the fee to the government. And they are not going to give those 150 people a fair share of the pie. they will just buy the CEO another yatch. John Posted June 13, 2007 1:24 PM
• You're alsolutely right, J.M. That is exactly what the Government is getting. An "end product" that "is completed with the barest competence so that the contract can continue." Sorry, but that is not the Government that I want to leave my children. K.D. Posted June 12, 2007 2:55 PM