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STATE V I CE PRES I DENT ’ S REPORT
Angie Bryan
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2016 has been a busy year for AFSA’s
Labor-Management team. Since their caseload
includes the MSI and OCP cohort grievances,
I won’t cover those issues in my report. Instead,
this report focuses on the various policy issues
we’ve been working hard to advance.
6/8 Rule Changes:
In the past, people who served overseas but were
unable to complete their tours, even for reasons beyond
their control, ended up having to count that overseas
time as D.C. time when it came to the 6/8 rule. In other
words, someone who served five years in D.C. and then
went overseas, only to have to be medically curtailed
before the end of his or her tour, ended up having that
overseas time added to his or her D.C. time clock. While
AFSA agreed that the overseas time should not neces-
sarily count as overseas time in cases where people
did not complete the majority of their tours, we had
long argued that such time should be considered as
neutral, counting as neither overseas nor D.C. time. This
year CDA agreed and changed the way they calculate
D.C. time in such cases.
Assignment Restrictions:
In 2015 then-State VP Matthew Asada launched a major
effort to compel the Department to formalize in writing
its policies and procedures with regard to assignment
restrictions. Diplomatic Security can place an assign-
ment restriction on an employee’s security clearance
whereby the employee may not serve at certain posts
in order to prevent potential targeting and harassment
by foreign intelligence services as well as to lessen
foreign influence and/or foreign preference security
concerns. After extended discussions and multiple
meetings, Diplomatic Security and AFSA finally agreed
not only on a process, but also on the precise wording
of an entirely new FAM section outlining it. As a result,
dozens of affected employees now have a much better
understanding of the process, as well as a way forward
should they wish to have their situation reviewed.
Bidding Reform:
AFSA has long looked for ways to improve the bidding
process, one of the biggest “pain points” for our mem-
ber. After consultations with and input from AFSA, this
year the Department not only released the promotion
lists before bidding began, but also shortened and sim-
plified the bidding process. AFSA continues to provide
feedback to the Department on how the 2017 season
can be even better.
Charleston:
In November I traveled to Charleston to meet with
CGFS, HR Shared Services, and Charleston-based FS
employees. We discussed what CGFS is doing to reduce
their backlog, learned about common mistakes that
get employees into trouble and how to prevent them,
and clarified some important issues with regard to the
Department’s shared leave programs.
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