Federal Newscast

Labor Department settles its own labor dispute

In today's Top Federal Headlines, the Labor Department settles up with workers who belong to a local sector of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Eric White@FEDERALNEWSCAST

August 15, 2016 8:21 am

4 min read

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

In today’s Top Federal Headlines, the Labor Department settles up with workers who belong to a local sector of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Some employees at the Labor Department who worked overtime for years but never got compensated will soon get back pay. American Federation of Government Employees local 112 settled a $7 million overtime grievance with the Labor Department. Current and former employees can find updates on the settlement on the AFGE local 112 website. The union filed a collective action grievance back in 2006. Local 112 represents thousands of federal employees in the Washington metro area.

The government is putting a few extra dollars in the wallets of traveling employees. The General Services Administration has announced fiscal 2017 per diem travel rates. The standard rate for lodging is $91 — up $2 from last year — and $51 for meals and other expenses. (Federal News Radio)

Professional services contracts will be where the money is at in 2017. According to Bloomberg Government’s Top 20 Opportunities in Federal Contracting, nine out of the top 20 contract opportunities in 2017 will be professional services with a potential value of $142 billion. One of the biggest is the General Services Administration’s OASIS contract worth $60 billion. (Federal News Radio)

A big sale in the realm of federal contracting: Honeywell International said it has sold its technology development and engineering arm Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc. to private equity firm KBR for about $300 million. HTSI provides professional space, security, logistics and manpower services to a number of government entities including the Defense Department and NASA. (Honeywell)

Another tool to reduce the rate of failure of IT projects is on the way. Agencies are getting some help to ensure their technology projects are ready to move into the acquisition stage. The Government Accountability Office released a draft of its new Technology Readiness Assessment Guide. GAO wants the new manual to help program managers, technology developers and governance bodies better understand technology maturity, conduct credible technology readiness assessments, and develop plans for technology maturation efforts. The guide is also intended for use by GAO auditors in evaluating government programs that rely heavily on advanced technologies. GAO plans to use the guide to audit the credibility of agencies’ maturity assessments of critical technologies within major acquisition programs. GAO is accepting comments on the draft guide for one year. (Government Accountability Office)

Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has a new leader. Dr. Vindell Washington takes over for Dr. Karen DeSalvo, who has had the job for the last two and a half years. Washington has previously served as deputy national coordinator under DeSalvo. DeSalvo will remain Acting Assistant Secretary for Health with HHS. (Federal News Radio)

One of the country’s biggest operators of privatized military housing will pay nearly half a million dollars in fines to settle allegations that it illegally evicted servicemembers. The penalties against Lincoln Military Housing spring from two cases — one brought by the Justice Department, the other by the California Attorney General. They alleged that Lincoln started eviction proceedings against 18 servicemembers while they were on active duty — running afoul of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which is meant to ensure legal actions don’t target servicemembers while they’re deployed and can’t appear in court. Government attorneys allege Lincoln falsely told a federal court that none of the troops were even in the military. (Department of Justice)

Seeking more female recruits, the Marine Corps is looking young. To high school girls. Recruiters are looking specifically at female athletic teams. They figure, that’s the most likely place to find young women who meet the physical fitness standards required to join the Marines. Women account for 7 to 8 percent of the Marine Corps staff. The Commandant, Gen. Robert Neller, wants to boost that to 10 percent. (Associated Press)

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said it wants to learn more about how the Transportation Security Administration responds to whistleblower retaliation cases. Committee leaders and Senator Chuck Grassley write to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger, asking why Federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean hasn’t been restored to his former position as a supervisor. TSA also hasn’t given MacLean his performance based raise even though he’s scored high on his performance evaluations. (House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee)