Biden Administration Tells Agencies To Negotiate Re-Opening With Unions

      From Fedweek:

New workplace planning guidance from the Biden Administration stresses in several places that agencies must “satisfy any applicable collective bargaining obligations, and provide ample notice to any affected employees,” before making changes.

The joint OMB-OPM-GSA memo notes President Biden’s executive order stating that it is the policy of the government to “encourage union organizing and collective bargaining.” It does not specify issues over which agencies must bargain nor what form bargaining should take; formal negotiations for example might be drawn out over weeks.

“Labor relations obligations may be addressed issue by issue for aspects of the agency’s overall plan for reentry and post-reentry. For example, an early issue to surface to employee representatives may be the agency’s plan for ample notice to employees. Also, for example, an agency may decide to engage with employee representatives on aspects of its post-reentry personnel policies separate from labor relations engagement on the updating of the agency’s COVID-19 workplace safety plan,” it says.

After that, employees who will be returning to the physical workplace or who will have altered work schedules should be given advance notice; the length can “vary based on the effect of the change on particular employees” but normally would be at least 30 days. …

     It would help if there were some basic trust between labor and management at Social Security but there isn’t. It would also help if the union would not be trying to keep employees working completely from home forever regardless of what that does to public service but I expect that's what they'll be asking for.  For that matter, does Social Security have to negotiate with the union over going back to the telework status quo ante Covid-19? That's not clear to me. In any case, I think a return to something like the telework status quo ante Andrew Saul to be more likely.

NADE Newsletter

      The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), a voluntary organization of employees who make disability determinations for Social Security at the initial and reconsideration levels, has released its Summer 2021 newsletter.

No Sunset On The Eric Conn Fiasco

      There's a new book out that deals in part with the Eric Conn fiasco, Twilight In Hazard, by Alan Maimon.

Happy Birthday APA

  

     Today is the 75th birthday of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The APA has been enormously influential. Most states have adopted their own APAs.

     I don't think the Social Security Administration has ever explicitly acknowledged that the APA applies to them but it has certainly influenced them. On the other hand, the APA was based to some extent on practices already followed at Social Security.

Disability Claims Projected To Soar

 

From Social Security's Budget Projections

Budget Projections

       Some excerpts from Social Security's budget projections (bolded) with my comments:

     "The Budget would increase staffing for frontline operations including State DDSs by over 6 percent." -- You say that as if frontline staffing is your real priority but if the agency gets what's proposed, its funding goes up by almost 10% but staffing only increases by 6%.

      "Over $2.7 billion for current staff, additional hiring, and other expenses for the State DDSs to make our disability determinations. This amount includes funding for 1,300 additional employees we are hiring in FY2021, an increase of about 10 percent." -- OK, so DDS staffing goes up 10%, which corresponds with the 10% increase in the budget. However, "frontline staffing" which includes DDS only goes up 6%. If I'm doing the math correctly, this means that "frontline staffing" apart from DDS goes up by a lot less than 6%. 

     "More than $2.1 billion for IT services funding to help us maintain and continue modernizing our large IT infrastructure, as well as increase our digital and automated services." -- The FY 2021 IT number was $1.9 billion so the projection is for an 11% increase which is a bit above the approximately 10% overall budgetary increase. However, contrast this with the 6% increase in frontline staffing and you get an idea of management priorities.

     Overtime:

• FY 2020 (actual) 1801 FTEs 
• FY 2021 (projected) 1,155 FTEs 
• FY 2022 (projected) 1,800 FTEs

 -- They expect to get a nearly 10% increase in funding but overtime will be slightly less in FY 2022 than in FY 2020. How do they expect to work off the backlogs at their field offices and payment centers? As we'll see below, the answer, at least for the payment centers, is that they don't expect to work off the backlogs.

      Disability claims receipts:

• FY 2020 (actual) 2,213
• FY 2021 (projected) 2,491
• FY 2022 (projected) 3,111

-- I don't understand the FY 2021 number. There have been far fewer disability claims filed in the current fiscal year than the last so why are they saying it's up? Anyway, they're projecting a 25% increase in disability claims in the next fiscal year. That's as good a guess as any but nobody knows. It could easily be a good deal more or less than that.

     National 800 number: Average speed of answer projected to go down from 15 minutes to 12 minutes. -- That still sucks

     Office of Hearings Operations Production per Workyear: 

• FY 2020 (actual) 93
• FY 2021 (projected) 80
• FY 2022 (projected) 103

-- I don't know what these numbers mean but if the are meaningful, they're saying that productivity at the hearing offices has taken a major hit during the pandemic but will soar in the next fiscal year. If these numbers mean anything, OHO employees should knock off the talk about how they've been just as productive working from home. Also, it would be nice if we had productivity numbers for other agency components.

     "We plan to hire ALJs by the end of FY 2022 to ensure we have adequate resources in our hearings operations." -- I think you may need them sooner but I'm glad you're planning for this. I hope you haven't forgotten that you need additional staff to go with those ALJs. Also, remember it takes time to hire and train people.

     "In FY 2022, we plan to reduce the PC backlog from 4.2 million actions to 4.14 million actions." -- That's almost no improvement in the backlog. Sounds like the payment centers aren't your priority.

     In FY 2022 the agency expects to " Begin nationwide rollout of the modern HACPS that increases the accuracy and efficiency of disability case processing for our hearings offices and Appeals Council." -- What is HACP? How does it increase accuracy and efficiency?

House Social Security Subcommittee Finally Schedules A Hearing

     From a press release:

 House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson announced today that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Equity in Social Security: In Their Own Words,” on Tuesday, June 15, at 2:00 PM EST.

     Note that it appears that this is not an oversight hearing. It sounds like there would be no witness from the agency.

More On Budget

     From CNBC:

President Joe Biden’s 2022 budget could give the Social Security Administration a $1.3 billion — or 9.7% — boost in funding. ...

The money would allow the Social Security Administration to pursue a host of improvement efforts, Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul said in the agency’s budget overview. ...

The money could help reduce the hearings backlog, bringing the annual average processing time for a decision down to 270 days in fiscal year 2022 from 386 days in fiscal year 2020 , according to the Social Security Administration’s estimates.

It could also help increase the number of initial disability claims completed by 720,000 – to 2,757,000 in fiscal year 2022 from 2,037,000 in fiscal year 2020.

The 800 number wait times could also drop to 12 minutes in 2022 from 16 minutes in 2020. ...

More than $5 billion of the proposed $14.2 billion budget would go to payroll costs for frontline employees who work at the administration’s field offices, 800 phone number and processing centers, according to the Social Security Administration.

Additionally, more than $2.7 billion would be earmarked for disability determinations, including existing staff, new hires and other expenses at state disability determination centers. The administration plans to maintain the 10% increase in staff — or 1,300 additional employees — that it took on in the 2021 fiscal year.

More than $2.1 billion would fund the modernization of the administration’s IT infrastructure.

Another $1.7 billion would pay for the expansion of the anti-fraud disability investigations program, as well as the completion of program integrity reviews.

More than $1.1 billion is slated for payroll costs for employees in the hearings division.

 In addition, $96 million would be dedicated to additional outreach for Supplemental Security Income, or SSI benefits. The goal would be to contact vulnerable people who are eligible for benefits, such as adults and children with disabilities, and the homeless.