Richard N. Schowengerdt
Questant
Enterprises
P.O.
Box 3284
Lakewood,
CA 90711
Phone:
(310) 332-3817
Pager:
(888) 787-8520
Fax:
(310) 332-0668
https://www.angelfire.com/blues/specialrategov/index.html
Attention:
Special-Rate U.S. Government Employees Wordldwide
Do you sometimes feel like you're pushing a huge ball up the slope only to have it come crashing down on you?
What do you think about the government telling you that they need your special talents and then have them take away a major portion of your locality pay?
Now maybe you can see why the "blues" was chosen as part of this website name...I don't need to tell you why special-rate employees for the Federal government are currently "singing the blues?" It's simple...the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has been systematically and arbitrarily reducing the locality pay of special-rate employees for many years; their stated position is that special-rate employees are being paid "enough as it is."
This year the situation has grown even worse for special-rate employees. The latest salaries and wages for federal employees may be found at:
http://www.opm.gov/oca/payrates/index.htm
and special salary tables are found at:
http://www.opm.gov/oca/02tables/SSR/index.htm
In 1997 general schedule employees living and working in the Los Angeles area received a 2.3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and a 10.31% locality adjustment on top of their base pay. However, special-rate employees received only the 2.3% COLA and much lesser percentages of the locality adjustment, some employees receiving none at all while some received no more than 7%. Many employees received only a 2 or 3% locality adjustment. This method of compensation is totally unfair to special-rate employees. Consider if you will a special-rate employee living and working in a rural area in the United States where the locality adjustment is only 4%. The employee is reassigned to the Los Angeles area where the locality adjustment should be 10.31% and instead the employee receives only 3%. OPM believes this is fair because the special-rate employee is being paid a higher base pay than a general schedule employee. Such reasoning is not only arbitrary and capricious but it is totally unfair. The special-rate employee sacrificed many years of comfort to undergo a higher professional level of education to pursue a chosen field. Such employees should not be penalized by having their locality adjustment reduced upon the whim of bureaucratic officials who believe they are being paid "enough as it is." The special-rate base pay determined by Congress derives from a completely different source than the locality pay determined by geographical area. These methods of compensation should not be intermingled or one affected by the other in any way. We do not believe that the intent of the legislation for special-rate employees was to punish them for their higher skill levels, yet this is what is happening under the implementation rules derived by OPM. OPM recently lost a lawsuit filed by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) for improper compensation paid to special-rate employees during the period from 1982-88. NTEU contended, and justly so, that OPM's formula for calculating annual COLA for special-rate employees was incorrect in that OPM was reducing the COLA for such employees in a very similar manner in which they are today reducing the locality pay. Under this decision OPM will be required to pay millions of dollars in refunds to special-rate employees. Information concerning the NTEU lawsuit may be found at the below links:
In spite of the above decision, however, OPM continues today to apply the same convoluted and illogical reasoning to reduce or in many cases eliminate the locality pay for special-rate employees. We would greatly appreciate your response to our appeal to take up the banner for special-rate employees and ensure that they are paid what they are worth. Either the government needs special-rate employees or they don't; if they choose to retain them and pay them the special-rate base pay, they should also pay them the full locality pay for the area in which they live and work. If you are a special-rate employee of the Federal government and are feeling the pinch...or if you are in sympathy with our cause, we would be happy to hear from you and will be anticipating your reply. We chose AngelFire as our sponsor for this site as we intend to "rain down fire from heaven" upon OPM until this matter is resolved to our satisfaction. We are currently seeking an experienced class-action attorney firm to litigate this matter and could use any donations that you might see fit to send to us. If you care to donate to our cause, please send your check to: Questant Enterprises, P.O. Box 3284, Lakewood, CA 90711, and mark your check with the note: "For the Advocate for SRE USG". You will receive a receipt and tax free status for this nonprofit activity.
Very truly yours,
Richard N.
Schowengerdt
Advocate For Special-Rate
Government Employees
Phone (661)
272-7386
Fax (661)
272-6444
Pager (888)
787-8520
Click on below link for background and current status of our litigation effort:
Background On Special-Rate Issues
Email
rschowe173@aol.com
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