Statement from AFGE Local 3028, AFL-CIO President Kevin D. McGee on VA Press Secretary Matt Burns statement on Performance Awards to Some Sr. Career Civil Servants

Wednesday May 9, 2007

Anchorage, AK, May 9, 2007: Last week, VA Press Secretary Matt Burns issued a Press Release offering an excuse and/or justification as to why the VA should acknowledge and reward its most Sr. Career Servants with excessive performance awards of up to $33,000. The reasoning was unsound. The fact is, one does not come to work for the U.S. Government to get rich and, in particular, one does not deserve these excessive awards if the individual is a political appointee.

The VA employees who deserve acknowledgement and rewards are those employees who work “in the trenches” providing the hands-on benefits and medical services needed by our most precious resource, our military veterans. One of the tools that Congress has given government agencies to help keep experienced career bargaining unit employees in public service is performance-based awards, which provide an incentive to want to improve performance. But rather than provide adequate incentive, opportunity, and training to improve the quality of work to assist America’s veterans, VA management officials look for ways to avoid paying performance-based awards by limiting the distribution.

AFGE is not saying that “all” bargaining unit employees deserve performance-based awards, but we are saying that if the employee puts forth the effort to meet the necessary expectations of servicing our veterans, then those employees deserve receiving performance-based awards.