Message from AFGE General Committee Spokesperson:

Please see attached, which is a settlement agreement between the parties to make changes to the awards system in Article 17 and to engage in settlement discussions over PACS and our GC union-management grievances in the near future. This agreement was made in connection with the latter issue, but no grievances were withdrawn as part of this agreement. The settlement agreement changes the names of the awards from “recognition of contribution” (ROC) to “performance award” and the “exemplary contribution or service award” (ECSA) to “on-the-spot award”.

The agreement expands eligibility for the performance award (formerly ROC) from an element average of 4.0 to 3.5, which will grant thousands more employees an award each year starting this year.

The agreement lifts the $800 cap on non-ratings based awards, meaning potentially higher on-the-spot (formerly) ECSA awards.

The agreement incorporates the Time Off Award MOU as a sidebar to Article 17, putting the MOU into the contract.

The agreement also changes the language in Article 17, Section 3.B, which previously initially allocated 75% of funds to ROCs and 25% to ECSAs, and then unspent ROC money would be transferred over to ECSAs. Each fiscal year, once the ROC awards were paid, millions were transferred to the ECSA pot months later. The intent of the language is to acknowledge the status quo and to speed up the processing of both types of awards by ensuring that the ROCs (now performance awards) get the funds they require and then allocating the awards to the on-the-spot awards.

The Agency has stated its intent to issues awards sooner than in past years, to grant awards to more employees, and to have the awards be meaningful. These are laudable goals and we will work to ensure those goals are realized.

In solidarity,

Rich Couture