International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Mission: We are the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO & CLC, a progressive labor union representing more than 80,000 men and women in professional, technical, administrative and associated occupations. * This organization profile has been set up by POPVOX. Legislative Agenda H.R. 2711: Citizen Empowerment Act H.R. 2711. This legislation provides that every official interaction by any executive branch employee, whether by telephone or in person, shall be allowed to be recorded by the other party. It also requires that in certain circumstances, these executive branch employees notify the other party of their right to record, or suffer disciplinary action. The legislation raises serious privacy concerns and could seriously undermine law enforcement-related investigations. No exceptions are provided, nor is there any requirement to notify a federal employee that he or she is being tape recorded. Congressional interactions are not covered by the bill. Our coalition urges you to vote NO on H.R. 2711. (Letter provided to POPVOX by Congressional office.) * The organization’s position on this bill was entered by POPVOX. H.R. 2565: STOP IRS Act H.R. 2565. This legislation requires the termination from employment of IRS employees who undertake any official action with respect to a taxpayer for the purpose of personal gain or political purpose. The termination procedure denies the same due process protections accorded other federal employees, including review by an independent third party, such as the Merit Systems Protection Board. Current authority already prohibits and punishes IRS and other government employees from undertaking any official action for personal gain or political purpose. Section 7323 of Title 5 of the U.S. Code restricts political activity by federal employees and 5 USC 2301(b)(8) prohibits employees from using their official authority for the purpose of interfering with or affecting an election. In addition, 5 CFR 2635.702 prohibits the use of public office for private gain. This bill is being promoted based on the inaccurate narrative that IRS employees acted out of political motivation in reviewing applications for tax exempt status. In fact, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has repeatedly testified under oath in numerous Congressional hearings that he found no evidence of political motivation by any IRS employees in his review. In addition, a recent House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing revealed that each and every IRS employee interviewed by the Committees on Oversight and Ways and Means attested that he or she was not aware of any political bias by any employee involved in the approval of tax exempt organization applications. Rather, TIGTA found that delays related to tax exempt reviews were the result of mismanagement and the complexity of the standards for granting exemptions. H.R. 2565 has not had a hearing or a mark up in the Ways and Means Committee. Our Coalition urges you to vote NO on H.R. 2565. (Letter provided to POPVOX by Congressional office.) * The organization’s position on this bill was entered by POPVOX. H.R. 2579: Government Employee Accountability Act H.R. 2579. This legislation would allow political appointees to terminate a career Senior Executive without any oversight and without having to prove cause. Although Senior Executives would be able to appeal their termination, the burden to overturn the removal would fall upon the employee. In essence, it would consider a career Senior Executive guilty of any alleged offense until proven innocent. Current law (5 U.S.C. 7543) allows agencies to take action against Senior Executives for misconduct, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or failure to accept a reassignment or transfer of function. The tools are already in place to hold Senior Executives accountable for their conduct, and agencies may undertake such actions when they consider it appropriate. Allowing agency heads to remove Senior Executives without a formal investigation will dangerously turn the Senior Executive Service into a * The organization’s position on this bill was entered by POPVOX. H.R. 1541: Common Sense in Compensation Act H.R. 1541 would cap, at five percent of annual base pay, the total amount of monetary awards, including merit-based performance awards and recruitment and retention awards, that executive branch employees may earn in a year when sequestration is in effect. While most federal employees do not receive awards of five percent or more, agencies should not be denied the ability to reward superior performance in their efforts to recruit and retain the best and the brightest. Congress routinely expresses support for greater efforts that embrace performance management and incentives for federal employees; this measure undermines the ability of agencies to reward and incentivize excellent performance. Our Coalition urges you to vote NO on H.R. 1541 (Letter provided to POPVOX by Congressional office.) * The organization’s position on this bill was entered by POPVOX. H.R. 1406: Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013 May 3, 2013 Dear Representative, As President of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), I am writing regarding HR 1406, the so-called Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013. This legislation will weaken overtime pay protections for workers and IFPTE urges you to vote against it. The title of this bill includes the word “flexibility.” While framing the title in this manner is very nice, it is also very misleading. This legislation will actually grant the decision-making flexibility to the employer only and not to the employee. Under this bill, an employee’s ability to work overtime and collect the premium overtime pay can be replaced with comp time at the request of the employer. From an employee perspective, here is how it works: An employee who is non-exempt from Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay protections works in excess of 40 hours a week, either through mandatory overtime or voluntary overtime; If an employee refuses to accept the employer offer of comp time in lieu of time in an half pay for any overtime worked, then the employer has the ability to search for another employee who will accept the deal; Employees working under this arrangement will then get no pay at all – even their regular salary – for any work done during the overtime period; After the overtime work is performed, employers have the flexibility to deny comp time requests for reasons ranging from employees not requesting time off “within a reasonable period,” to employee’s requesting time off that could “unduly disrupt the operations of the employer”; The only recourse for an employee who is denied both overtime pay and comp time is through a costly and timely litigation effort. History tells us that the FLSA overtime requirement was intended to encourage employers to hire more workers. Contrarily, this legislation will weaken the 40- hour work week, lead to reduced hiring by employers, and could lead to increases in unemployment. As it stands now, an employer has to pay a premium to any worker who is non-exempt from FLSA who works in excess of 40 hours a week. Instead of paying the overtime rate, some employers decide to hire more workers. Instead, this bill would send the signal to employers that there is no need to look to hire new employees, as they can simply force their current workforce to work more hours with no extra pay – in some cases workers would not even get to enjoy the comp time benefit either. Not only would this bill frustrate the hiring incentive, it will also result in a pay cut for non-exempt FLSA workers who work in excess of 40 hours per week. It is also important to dispel the notion that accepting comp time instead of overtime pay is somehow voluntary for workers. First of all, allowing employers the option of offering comp time instead of pay would increase the demand by employers for mandatory overtime. In addition, if an employee were to resist comp time, employers would have the opportunity to simply pressure others into accepting the arrangement. Indeed, the choice to replace overtime pay with comp time is solely decided by the employer, not the employee. This legislation is bad for American workers and IFPTE urges you to oppose HR 1406. (Letter provided to POPVOX by Congressional office.) * The organization’s position on this bill was entered by POPVOX. H.R. 273: To eliminate the 2013 statutory pay adjustment for Federal employees. February 12, 2013 Dear Representative: As President of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) I am writing regarding HR 273, legislation sponsored by Congressman Ron DeSantis. This bill aims to freeze federal employee pay for a third consecutive year and is scheduled for House co
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 13:01:04 +0000
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