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F
or the past yearAFSAhas focused
on improving benefits and the
quality of work/life, career and pro-
fessional development, and security,
in accordance with our 2013-2015
Strategic Plan. To do this effectively
we have expanded communications
and outreach with membership and
forged new partnerships with out-
side organizations. As a union, we’ve
worked collaboratively with State
Department leadership to negotiate new personnel policies and
regulations. Where we have failed to reach agreement, we have
filed institutional disputes with agency management and the For-
eign Service Grievance Board to protect employees’ individual
and collective bargaining rights.
This year we appointed five new State Representatives to the
Governing Board to replace those retiring or returning overseas.
We had a fantastic response to our solicitation call, and I am
proud to serve as part of what is AFSA’s most diverse—whether
measured by ethnicity, gender, cone or specialty—State Repre-
sentative contingent ever. In 2015, we look forward to revitalizing
our AFSA post representative program, the eyes and ears of the
union overseas.
Benefits and Quality of Work/Life
This year’s membership survey confirmed that a permanent au-
thorization of full overseas comparability pay (OCP) continues
to be the number-one priority for our members. Members also
sought more workplace flexibility and better work-life balance.
We partnered with three employee organizations and affinity
groups—Balancing Act, GLIFAA and ExecutiveWomen@ State—
in an effort to improve parental leave and adoption options for
employees.
We joined with our two Civil Service union counterparts to
sign a memorandum of agreement with the State Department to
establish a one-year pilot leave-bank program. We proposed to
the department new regulations covering extended leave without
pay for department employees, enabling them to take multiple
years without pay for personal reasons or professional develop-
ment opportunities. Finally, we kicked off a discussion of after-
hours accessibility and the tyranny of 24/7 email (see
http://bit.
ly/1ApeB9P) that we hope will produce guidelines for supervisors
and employees.
Sometimes our efforts focused on simply making it easier for
employees to travel to and from work, or to travel overseas. We
welcomed the department’s announcement of employee enroll-
ment in the Transportation Security Administration’s trusted
traveler program TSA PreCheck, and we are pursuing a similar
program for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry
to facilitate customs processing on return to the United States.
AFSA also inaugurated the first Capital BikeShare station at
the National Foreign Affairs Training Center (still known as the
Foreign Service Institute, or FSI) and a new free employee shower
facility at SA-3 to make it easier to bike, run or walk to work. Fi-
nally, AFSA partnered with FSI and Arlington County to survey
FSI students, staff and faculty about their commutes, and we look
forward to working on the recommendations (new pedestrian and
bicycle entrance, free shower and locker facilities).
Career and Professional Development
Early in the year AFSA submitted seven Quadrennial Diplomacy
and Development Review thought papers to QDDR Special Repre-
sentative Tom Perriello for consideration as it developed the State
Department’s second QDDR. One paper looked at career paths
and professional development. For almost a decade the depart-
ment has had individual career development programs in place to
help guide an employee’s career; however, what has been missing
is a more detailed look at what such a career would look like given
recent hiring patterns.
AFSA encouraged the department to do a “career path analy-
sis” for all officers and specialists, across all cones and specialties,
which would include promotion projections, upward mobility and
the future of the skill code. We have had preliminary engagement
with members of several skill-code groups—office management
specialists, construction engineers, security technical specialists,
information resource officers—and look forward to continuing
this work.
According to this year’s membership survey, two-thirds of
AFSA’s active-duty State survey respondents agreed or strongly
agreed with the statement that the “pig in the python” problem
(the large numbers hired during Diplomacy 3.0 who are moving
through the system) would directly affect their careers. In a sepa-
rate question, two-thirds disagreed or strongly disagreed that the
department recognized the problem and had done the requisite
analysis and adjustment of positions to ensure satisfying careers
for all.
The department’s five-year workforce development plan, and
separate report to Congress, failed to fully address the pig-in-
the-python problem, the mid-level position deficits and the false
sense of security provided by what may not be “flat” attrition rates.
AFSA highlighted these issues, as well as concerns about changes
to the Foreign Service conversion program, in its first transmis-
sion to Congress on the department’s plan (in accordance with 22
U.S. Code § 4173 requiring incorporation of the exclusive repre-
sentative’s views on workforce development).
AFSA continued its efforts to support a diverse, innovative
and professional workforce. It advocated changes within the de-
partment on the oversight and reporting of diversity, including
more granularity of demographic data, and reforms to the assign-
ment restrictions and preclusion programs that particularly affect
Asian-Americans and other ethnic groups.
State Vice President’s Report:
Matthew Asada