IFPTE Applauds Biden Administration and OPM for Proposing Rulemaking to Reinforce the Non-Partisan and Merit-Based Civil Service
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Officers of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), a labor union representing upwards of 90,000 workers, including tens of thousands of federal employees, welcomes the Biden-Harris Administration's announcement that Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has proposed rulemaking to strengthen and clarify the status of civil service positions and protections and establish procedures regarding transferring positions from competitive service to the excepted service as well as within the excepted service. The proposed rulemaking will safeguard the civil service from attempts to weaken competitive hiring and merit system protections similar to the previous administration's effort to transfer tens of thousands of civil servants into a new excepted Schedule F. IFPTE executive officers offered the following comments.
IFPTE President Matthew Biggs:
“Our union wholeheartedly applauds the Biden-Harris Administration and OPM Director Ahuja and Deputy Director Shriver for making a principled commitment to protecting the merit-based, competitive, and nonpartisan federal civil service. The proposed OPM rule is intended to protect against any efforts to mirror the Schedule F attacks by the past Trump Administration to politicize the civil service, render the federal government an at-will employer, and otherwise dismantle the public services that taxpayers so heavily rely on. IFPTE thanks the administration as well as Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) for their efforts in Congress to protect the civil service from being turned into a patronage system.”
IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson:
“The tens of thousands of federal workers represented by IFPTE work to defend our national and homeland security, promote space exploration, monitor and operate our nation’s locks and dams, and adjudicate disability cases for millions of Americans, just to name a few. And they do so in the name of public service, not political allegiance. This OPM rule will help to protect the 2.1 million federal workers who serve us all each and every day. From day one, this administration has made a commitment to protecting the civil service and making the federal government into a model employer and IFPTE appreciates the well-considered approach in this proposed rule."
Across the United States and Canada, IFPTE represents 90,000 highly skilled workers in the federal, public, and private sectors. IFPTE is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO and the CLC. More information can be found at www.IFPTE.org.
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