MESSAGE TO ALL OFFICE OF INVESTIGATION EMPLOYEES FROM ASSISTANT SECRETARY MICHAEL J. GARCIA STATUS OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATORS AND BARGAINING UNIT
APRIL 20, 2004

I want to take this opportunity to provide further information regarding several issues that have been raised since the issuance of my April 13, 2004, memorandum to all Office of Investigations (OI)I employees on "Pay Parity and Collective Bargaining."

First, we have created a new "Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Criminal Investigator" position that merges the former customs and immigration investigative functions and assigns responsibilities for intelligence, counterintelligence or investigative work directly related to national security and terrorism investigations.  All ICE OI Criminal Investigators will be assigned to this new position, which is still classified as "law enforcement" for retirement purposes.  As a consequence of these new duties, we have determined that all Criminal Investigator positions in OI will be excluded from the bargaining unit.

Several questions have been raised that suggest there is a link between promotions that may result from this new position and bargaining-unit status. The two issues-employee upgrades and bargaining-unit status--are not linked. Effective May 2, 2004, employees will be assigned to the new position descriptions and all qualifying employees will be upgraded to the GS-13 level.

A second and separate issue involves union dues currently being allotted from criminal investigators (CIs) voluntarily via previously executed SF-1187 Forms. Because the CIs will no longer be in a bargaining unit, we initially planned to terminate dues allotments and require new SF-1187 allotments from anyone who still wished to have dues withheld. However, we have been advised that a significant number of individuals have various, longstanding  insurance programs "packaged" as part of their dues allotment and our termination of the allotment would terminate their insurance coverage.  Certainly, this was never our intention.

With this consideration in mind, we are postponing the effective termination of all dues allotments for CIs until May 30, 2004.  In the interim:

• Employees who wish to continue their dues allotments beyond May 30 must notify their servicing human resources (HR) office by completing a new SF-1187. Current voluntary allotments will not continue beyond May 30.
• Employees who wish to terminate their existing dues allotments prior to May 30 must notify their servicing HR office by completing an SF-1188.
• Both of these forms are available on the OPM website (www.opm.gov/Forms/html/sf.asp)

Because CIs now are excluded from the bargaining unit, they are not bound by standard restrictions that limit voluntary termination of union dues allotments to a specific date or once a year.  They may terminate their dues allotment in writing at any time.  Any termination will be effective at the beginning of the next pay period following receipt of written notice by the servicing HR office.

As I stated in my April 13, 2004, memorandum, employees have a right to pay union dues and be union members regardless of whether they are included in a bargaining unit.  Employees who wish to voluntarily allot dues to a union may complete an SF-1187 at any time.  ICE management takes no position on the issue of union membership.

Any questions should be referred through the usual chain of command.

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