The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007

S E P T EMB E R 2 0 0 7 / F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L 73 A F S A N E W S ingbelief that the rules shouldrequire every- one to share the burden of hardship ser- vice and that no one should be exempt, including senior officers, 7th-floor staffers and well-connected insiders in certain bureaus. Outline of the Compromise After taking account of the feedback fromAFSA’sworldwidemembership, the Governing Board agreed to the following compromise: 1) AFSA agreed to the DG’s proposal to change the six-year limit to a five-year limit (as it was until the mid-1990s), but only on the following conditions: a. Any employee who began a series of domestic assignments in 2004 or earlier is “grandfathered;” b. Aspecial committeewithinHR/CDA will considerwaiver requestsunder thenew five-year rule; c. The criteria spelled out in the SOP for the waiver committee include the fol- lowing compassionate reasons that may justify a waiver: medical issues, having a son or daughter entering the final year of high school, providing care to an elderly parent and dealing with child-custody issues; and d. Thewaiver criteriawill includedeputy assistant secretaries but not people serving in staff positions or tandem spouses of DASes. 2) AFSA agreed on a gradual phase- in of the new 15-percent fair-share threshold for those who accepted assign- ments at 5- or 10-percent posts in recent years, as shown in the following chart: Current Realities AFSAbelieves the agreement represents a fair compromise that takes into account the realities that the Foreign Service is fac- ing overseas but also addresses the diverse concernsof ourmembership. It does short- en the number of years a Foreign Service member can serve domestically, but it “grandfathers”many people already serv- ing domestically and expands the waiver criteria for those with compelling person- al circumstances. It does shorten the time before fair-share bidding is required for some employeeswhohave servedat 5- and 10-percent posts, but it will not unfairly change anyone’s bidding status immedi- ately. (AFSA had also tried, albeit unsuc- cessfully, to get the department to agree to an exception for those at posts with a 10- percent or lower differential whohadbeen hurt by last year’s ban on extensions.) It is important to remember that, if no compromisehadbeen reached, thedepart- ment almost certainlywouldhave brought our disagreement over the proposed assignment rule changes to the Foreign Service Impasse Disputes Panel. The rul- ings of this panel, which is part of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, are unpredictableand inrecent yearshave tend- ed to favor management. There is a real possibility that the panel could have adopted thedepartment’s original proposal or a solution of its own, which could have been far worse than the compromise out- lined above. Additional AFSA Proposals Recognizing that the department’s immediate imperative is to generate enough volunteers to fill the hardship and unaccompaniedposts on the 2008 assign- ment vacancy lists, AFSAproposedduring these negotiations a number of creative ideas, including: 1) Permit those facing separation from the Service due to time-in-class/time- in-Service expiration to postpone retire- ment, if they arewilling to take assignments at designated hard-to-fill overseas posts; 2)Use existingwaiver authority tomake it easier forWAE annuitants to take posi- tions at unaccompanied posts; 3) Institute anoption, accompaniedby strong, tangible benefits as an incentive, for people going to unaccompanied posts to sign up for two years. Options could in- clude such things as extending the “guar- anteed top-five onward assignment” that is now available to Iraq Provincial Recon- struction Team volunteers; 4)Order an immediate doublingof the SeparateMaintenanceAllowance for those serving at involuntary unaccompanied posts, aswell as a significant “signingbonus” (perhaps $20,000) for anyone willing to volunteer for those positions; and 5)Reviewthe long-termstaffingpattern for Embassy Baghdad and the Iraq PRTs withaviewtoward“rightsizing” thoseposts. AFSA is urging the Secretary and the director general to give serious considera- tion to these and other vehicles for addressing the short-termrequirements of the ForeignServicewithout fundamental- ly alteringour volunteer assignment system andwithout placing greater strains on the ability of FS members to pursue their careers while managing the needs of their families. Fair Share • Continued from page 71 Year Departed from Year Employee Transfer Cycle/ 5- or 10-percent Post Must Start Bidding Arrival at Post ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2010 2013 2014 2009 2012 2013 2008 2012 2013 2007 2012 2013 2006 2011 2012 2005 2010 2011 2004 2009 2010 2003 2009 2010 2002 2008 2009 USAID SFS Promotions Confirmed AFSA/USAID is pleased to announce that the USAID Senior Foreign Service officers identified for promotion in September 2006 were finally confirmed by the Senate and attested by President Bush in June. For months, AFSA urged USAIDmanagement to move the list forward. The recent confirmation successfully concludes a sad saga that was completely avoidable and that created unnecessary problems for a significant number of USAID officers. AFSA/USAID believes that the problemwill not recur during the current promotion cycle. AFSA NEWS BRIEFS