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LABOR MANAGEMENT:

DEFENDING OUR MEMBERS

AFSA’s labor-management office provides support to the Vice

Presidents and Representatives of AFSA’s six bargaining units. The

office also provides support to the AFSA President, Governing Board,

Committees, and staff on a wide variety of issues and assistance

to retirees. From January 1 to December 31, 2016, the office record-

ed 1,003 requests for assistance. During this same time period, 317

individual cases were opened. The total number of open individual

cases currently recorded is 459, since many of these cases were

opened in previous years. Grievances are the largest category of

cases, followed by investigations and disciplinary action.

In 2016, AFSA’s Labor Management office successfully

negotiated implementation of an exception to the “Vance

Memo” (which requires the State Department to obtain

permission from employees prior to recording an interview)

that had been granted to Diplomatic Security’s Office of

Special Investigation; a new process for awarding Meritori-

ous Service Increases (MSIs) in 2017; 12 FAM regulations for

appealing assignment restrictions; Procedural Precepts for

Performance Pay; and an agreement on linked onward

assignments for employees volunteering to serve at

Priority Staffing Posts.

The office also continued to deal with a number of residual issues

relating to the rate at which MSIs were conferred in 2013-2016 at

the State Department. In April 2016, the Foreign Service Labor Rela-

tions Board (FSLRB) denied the Department’s appeal of a 2015 deci-

sion by the Foreign Service Grievance Board which had ordered the

Department to pay MSIs to over 550 employees who should have

received MSIs in 2013. Following the FSLRB decision, the Depart-

ment and AFSA entered into an agreement to pay the 2013 MSI in a

fair and expeditious manner. By the end of 2016, all 2013 MSI recipi-

ents should have received their monetary awards plus interest and

back pay. In 2016, the FSGB denied AFSA’s implementation dispute

relating to the 2014 MSIs, in which the Department awarded

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