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AFSA Annual Report 2013
10
LABOR
MANAGEMENT
Looking Out for Our Members
BENGHAZI ACCOUNTABILITY
REVIEW BOARD
State Department labor management represented several
employees who were interviewed by members or staff of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Committee on Over-
sight and Government Reform and the Senate Select Com-
mittee on Intelligence in connection with the Sept. 11, 2012,
attack on our mission in Benghazi, Libya. We also assisted
in a case that is currently pending before the Foreign Service
Grievance Board related to an individual who was placed on
administrative leave, without due process, following publica-
tion of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board Report.
DISCIPLINARY ACTION FOR
OFF-DUTY CONDUCT
For several years, the Department of State has sought to
discipline employees for certain types of private, off-duty
conduct that it characterizes as “notoriously disgraceful con-
duct.” In one case, State sought to suspend an employee for
allegedly creating the appearance of prostitution by giving a
woman money to facilitate her departure from a hotel after
having had sexual relations with her the night before. The
Foreign Service Grievance Board overturned the charge,
finding that “a broad-brushed application of the ‘appearance
is enough’ principle is not applicable where the only source
of information is from the grievant, whose statements con-
tradict the finding, and there is no other evidence.”
The Foreign Service Grievance Board also examined
whether the department could discipline an employee
whose allegedly offensive e-mails—sent to his friends from
his private computer on his own time—were hacked and
published in a public, online forum, causing embarrassment
to the State Department. The board upheld the charge of
notoriously disgraceful conduct, finding that Foreign Service
employees serving overseas are on duty at all times and
must conduct themselves in a manner that does not reflect
negatively on the department. But it ruled that the penalty
(a 30-day suspension) was too harsh, and mitigated it to a
five-day suspension.
ENTRY-LEVEL TRAINING AND
LOCALITY PAY
AFSA assisted an entry-level employee with a grievance
regarding entitlement to locality pay. The Foreign Service
Grievance Board held that State Department regulations and
procedures supersede a 1998 Office of Personnel Manage-
ment memo designating all entry-level officers as having
“in-transit” status before going overseas for their first
assignment. In light of the FSGB ruling, AFSA has begun
discussions with the Department to enable local hires to be
assigned to FSI in accordance with Department regulations,
thus making them eligible for locality pay.
DETRIMENTAL RELIANCE
Labor management represented six Bureau of Diplomatic
Security agents who, relying on erroneous advice from the
department and their travel orders, had filed for per diem at
the locality rate for their house-hunting trips. Though new
guidance from the General Services Administration autho-
rized reimbursement only at the lower continental U.S. per
diem rate, the Foreign Service Grievance Board ruled in
favor of the grievants. Finding that “the grievants’ detrimen-
tal reliance on the erroneous information contained in their
travel orders was reasonable,” the board ordered that all six
be paid per diem at the locality rate.
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
AGREEMENT VIOLATION
Labor management worked with AFSA’s Foreign Agricul-
tural Service vice president to block the agency’s attempt to
directly assign an employee to an overseas position without
opening the position up for bidding by other Foreign Service
employees, in violation of the collective bargaining agree-
ment. Similarly, the AFSA Foreign Commercial Service VP
was advised on that agency’s collective bargaining obliga-
tions during the consolidation of headquarters and field
activities of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service and
the Market Access and Compliance Division.
ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH
INSPECTION SERVICE
AFSA and APHIS signed a charter to establish a forum for
cooperative and productive labor management relations.
AFSA hopes to appoint an APHIS member to the AFSA
Governing Board in 2014. To be eligible, the member must
be occupying a bargaining unit position in the D.C. area.
USAID LABOR MANAGEMENT
AFSA worked with the U.S. Agency for International Devel-
opment to revise ADS 459, which outlines the mandatory
policies and required procedures for newly hired employees
entering USAID as Foreign Service Career Candidates,
and the New Officer Reference Manual. USAID labor
management also began negotiations with the agency on a
reasonable repayment schedule for 11 employees who were
overpaid for their service in East Timor. AFSA is also in
the process of developing an AIDList for State Department
employees, which provides a voluntary service for use by
personnel of USAID and State to sell, rent, buy or exchange
personally-owned items or services such as apartments,
rooms, sublets and temporary housing, furniture and other
items in both overseas missions and D.C.
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