November 13, 2002

MEMORANDUM FOR: Norman Mesewicz, Deputy Director, Labor and Employee

Relations Division, ARHRL

FROM: Carolyn Federoff, President, Council of HUD Locals 222

SUBJECT: Grievance of the Parties and Request for Information in connection with

Violation of Supplement 35

Please accept this Grievance of the Parties and Request for Information regarding violations of Supplement 35. Specifically, Supplement 35, paragraph 12(a) required that:

[f]or the remainder of Fiscal Year 2002, and for bargaining unit positions at or with potential to GS-13 or above, the parties agree that 50% of advertised positions will be posted for internal applicants only. The remaining 50% will be processed under the terms of the HUD/AFGE Agreement.

Based upon our assessment of limited data (vacancy announcements that closed after July 29 through the end of the fiscal year), we believe that this paragraph has been violated. We believe that a minimum of 192 bargaining unit positions with potential to GS-13 or above were advertised under the terms of the HUD/AFGE Agreement, while only 10 were advertised for internal applicants only.

We recognize that the intensity of the 9/30 Hiring Initiative made it difficult for Management to monitor and comply with this paragraph. We anticipate that once Management and the Union agree upon the total number of positions advertised under the terms of the HUD/AFGE Agreement versus those advertised internally only, this matter will be resolved quickly with the posting of the requisite number of vacancies for internal applicants only.

Our initial estimate is based upon our database, supplemented by a review of 146 vacancy announcements provided by your office. However, our database does not include information on the bargaining unit status of the positions or the total number of positions. Therefore, to accurately determine the number, your office will either have to provide copies of all of the identified vacancy announcements for our review, or will have to review the vacancy announcements and supply the missing information. Either method will be acceptable to us. We will provide a list of all of the identified positions within the week.

We appreciate the cooperation of your office in supplying copies of vacancy announcements as requested by memorandum dated October 9, 2002. We note that several vacancy announcements requested were not provided, and that we failed to ask for eleven others. Additionally, we have reviewed the of vacancy announcements posted after March 22, 2002, with closing dates before July 30, 2002, and have identified several that we would like to review to determine grade potential, number of positions, bargaining unit status and eligible applicants. We will be sending this list of vacancy announcements within the week, as well.

Finally, the list of vacancy announcement posted after March 22, 2002, with closing dates before July 30, 2002, does not include announcements posted by the field Administration Services Centers. We will need to see a list that includes announcements from the field ASCs for this time period.

We recognize that there is additional work that will need to be done to accurately determine the actual harm and proper remedy. We look forward to working with your office to complete the review of necessary data. I will forward the identified positions and list of vacancy announcements shortly. In the meantime, please call me at 617/994-8264 and advise me regarding the status of our request for the field ASCs vacancy announcements. Thank you.

cc: Council 222 Executive Board and

Local Presidents