SEC, Union Continue Grappling over Pay

The latest attack came from the National Treasury Employees Union where president Colleen Kelley contended that the SEC’s latest offer is too complicated. She said it also won’t allow commission workers to make what their counterparts at other federal agencies earn, according to a Dow Jones report.

She said the SEC proposal would only spend $16.5 million of the $25 million available for pay raises this year.

“This is hardly the result for SEC employees envisioned by Congress when it approved pay-parity legislation last year,” Kelley said in a prepared statement.

Kelley also faulted the SEC’s proposal for giving too much power to management. Under the SEC’s proposal, the number of managers involved in pay raise decisions would double, with three levels of management having veto power over a raise for an employee under review, Kelley said.

The NTEU, which represents 150,000 federal employees, including 1,800 at the SEC, has been battling the SEC over pay since May when SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt proposed a 6% agency raise. (See SEC, Union Clash Over Pay Hikes ).