July 30, 2002

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

Relations Division, ARHRL

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

SUBJECT: Request for extension of time for employees to complete mandatory

Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

Many bargaining unit members throughout the nation have informed me, or their Local presidents, that they are experiencing difficulty in completing the mandatory Virtual University Course on Sexual Harassment. The system frequently overloads and “kicks them out,” or they successfully complete a module only to discover the system has not recorded it as “successfully completed,” thereby requiring them to redo the module.

We respectfully request that you suspend the course, along with the requirement for its completion, until the system problems can be resolved. Requiring employees to complete the course under present conditions is almost guaranteed to be a waste of their time. After the system problems have been resolved and before reinstating the requirement for all employees to complete the course, we recommend that the requirement to complete the course be “rolled-out” to a 100-200 member group to test the system for additional problems.

Please advise me at your earliest on this matter. If I am not available, please refer to my memorandum of succession and contact the next available officer. If we do not hear from you by August 15, we will assume that the agency is no longer requiring completion of this course this fiscal year.

cc: E. Ann Grandy, Director

HUD Training Academy

Vickers Meadows, Assistant Secretary

Office of Administration

Council 222 Executive Board

and Local Presidents