"Pitt's pay scale is the Pitts!" and "No more Enrons,"
U.S. SEC employees protest over salary talks
By John Poirier
WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - About 200 employees at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rallied on Thursday to protest agency management proposals over salary raises.
A union representing 2,000 of the 3,000 SEC employees has sought a federal mediator after talks with SEC's management over how to implement $25 million of funding for "pay parity" stalled over a week ago.
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is seeking about 60 percent of the money, which was approved by Congress last year and signed into law by President George W. Bush in January.
Union officials estimate that SEC management wants to provide only about 40 percent for union-represented salaries for the remainder of the fiscal year but said they could not be certain because management has so far failed to disclose information on how the funding is to be used.
At issue is a new pay scale unilaterally implemented by management this month that the union says favors managers and supervisors.
The union also said it opposes a proposal for an initial 6 percent increase because it would not benefit workers over the next few years.
"It's regrettable it has come to this," Solomon Cromwell, an accountant in the SEC's division of corporation finance, said at the afternoon rally. "In my opinion, morale is at an all-time low," Cromwell, who has worked at the SEC for about 24 years, added.
The rally at the SEC's main office in Washington was often punctuated with chants by employees carrying signs expressing displeasure with the current status of stalled negotiations and deriding SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt.
"Your version of pay parity sounds like the board of Enron -- Unfair." read one sign. "Pitt's pay scale is the Pitts!" and "No more Enrons," read others.
Since the late 1990s, the SEC has sought to halt the flow of experienced staff, such as accountants, attorneys and examiners, leaving for higher-paying jobs in the private sector.
The NTEU has sought to raise salaries by as much as 30 percent to bring them in line with salaries at other federal financial regulatory agencies.
05/30/02 14:43 ET |
