The Foreign Service Journal, October 2005

V.P. VOICE: STATE n BY STEVE KASHKETT The 700 Club F or those who doubt that today’s Foreign Service has changed dramatically from what it was even a decade ago, here is an astonishing number for you: 700 . That is the number of unaccompanied positions overseas that will need to be filled in the summer 2006 assignment cycle alone, which is just getting under way now. That means another 700 people in the Foreign Service who will dutifully go off to dangerous hardship postings for a year or two of their lives with- out their families. Last month, I wrote about the outdated and false image of a cushy, pampered life in the Foreign Service, a quaint misperception that lingers in the minds of many of our critics. Let them reflect on this growing number of unaccompanied posts. There was a time just a few years ago when there were only a couple of countries deemed so dangerous that we did not allow families at our diplomatic posts there. Today the list includes not just Lebanon and Liberia, but also Iraq and Afghanistan, Burundi and Congo, Bosnia and Kosovo, Sudan and Cote d’Ivoire, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and others. Needless to say, this unaccompanied list represents just a small subset of themany dozens of overseas posts that are classified as hardship posts. Themajority of Foreign Service assignments now fall into this category. This is the unstable, rough-and- tumble—and decidedly not very “cushy”—world in which most Foreign Service employees serve out their careers. The people of the Foreign Service will undoubtedly rise to the challenge, as we always do. Some will enthusiastically volunteer for these unaccompanied positions. Others will allow themselves to be persuaded reluctantly to rearrange their lives and their family situations for a year or two in order to answer the call of duty. Still many others may not be willing or able to leave their families at this moment in time. The urgent need to fill these 700 unaccompanied positions will put enormous pressure on Career Development Officers and others throughout the personnel sys- tem to bend the rules, to make dubious promises, to engineer behind-the-scenes deals, to lean on people to take those jobs … in short, to do whatever they need to do to plug all the pigeon-holes. AFSA’s role will be to make sure that management plays fair in filling these 700 positions. We want to guarantee some degree of equity in assigning people to unac- companied and other hardship posts. We want those who become part of the “700 Club” to receive appropriate incentives and rewards for doing so. At the same time, we want to prevent those who cannot take unaccompanied assignments from being unfairly penalized or disadvantaged. In an era when somany Foreign Service members have to serve in remote places without their families, AFSA will press the department to find ways to facilitate vis- itation and make things easier for families that have to live apart. The Separate Maintenance Allowance is woefully inadequate and should be substantially increased. It is a disgrace that people serving at unaccompanied posts should have to pay for their own flights and use their own annual leave to see their childrenmore than once a year. There is certainly much more that department management could do to help ease the blow of prolonged separation from family. o OCTOBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 3 PERSONNEL NOTES Military Leave Credit BY JAMES YORKE, LABOR MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST F oreign Service members who took military leave during the 1990s will be aware that a 2003 decision (Butterbaugh v. Department of Justice) ruled that employeeswere required to take military leave only on days on which they were required to work. Under the ruling, agencies shouldhave allowed15workdays ofmilitary leave for reserve training, rather than15calendardays. Thecourt ruledthat agencies shouldnot have chargedmilitary leave fornon-workdays thatoccurredwith- in theperiodofmilitarydutyprior toDec. 21, 2000. Onthisdate, the lawwas changed toallowemployees to takemilitary leaveon an hourly basis. Many federal employees filed claims and had annual leave recredited for those non-workdays, but there was a six-year limit, somany employees have only been able to have leave recredited for some of the time, depending on when they filed their claims. However, a July15decision this year by theMerit SystemsProtectionBoarddirect- ed that the six-year limit did not apply, because the periods of service fell under theUniformedServices Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. USERRA contains no time limit, but because itwas enacted in1994, its effect can only go back that far. This decision appears to authorize recreditedannual leave for employeeswho were previously denied it based on the so- called “six-year rule.” This will apply to employees whowere forced to take annu- al leave for reserve training between 1994 and 2000. AFSA can provide information and copies of theMSPBdecision so thatmem- bers can claim a recredit of annual leave. In addition, anyone who has not taken advantage of the Butterbaugh decision in the past will want to ensure that all their allowable leave is recredited. o