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Max length of non-per diem details extended

Near the end of June, in response to employees having to decide between continuing to take care of a family member on non-per diem (NPD) detail or going on leave without pay or resigning, the NBPC raised the issue with Chief Ortiz, not long before he retired.

The NPD detail policy limited employees to a total of 180 days on an NPD detail. Unfortunately, that did not always comport with the medical issues that caused employees to need to be on the detail in the first place. As a result, after discussing the issue with the NBPC, USBP has changed the policy to allow for NPD details to last for a maximum of one year.

The policy document has not yet been updated, but all sectors and stations were notified in June that employees are no longer limited to 180 days.

If something arises that causes you to need to go on a non-per diem detail, please ask a union steward for help and know that you now have up to one year to spend time helping resolve the issue.

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Notice of Membership Meeting

Local 2366 Membership Meeting
Monday, August 14, 2023, at 7 pm
801 Kings Way, Del Rio, Texas 78840

Meeting topics
-Pursuit policy updates
-Election nominations
-Medical information UIG
-Overtime pay cap
-In-sector swap opening
-Pay legislation
-Grievance/arbitration updates

If you cannot attend the meeting, we will continue to publish the latest news on the website.

During this meeting, nominations will be held for the offices of Local President, Executive Vice President, Vice President North, Vice President South, Treasurer, and Secretary. Nominations will be accepted from the floor or via email sent to nominations@nbpc2366.org – all nominations must be received by the close of the nominations portion of the meeting. A second for a nomination is not required. Use the same email address for questions to the election committee.

Qualifications for office are: 1) be a member in good standing of this local; 2) be a member for one year of an AFGE local, immediately preceding the closing of the nomination process; and 3) not be a member in any labor organization not affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Candidates shall not run for more than one office in the same local election. Any member who is current on their dues payments and/or any member who has signed a dues withholding form (SF 1187) accepted by a responsible officer of the local, is in good standing and eligible to nominate candidates.

Candidates must accept his or her nomination at the nomination meeting or, if not in attendance, submit a written acceptance to the election committee, to be received by close of nominations. A lone letter of acceptance is a self-nomination. The member making the nomination has the responsibility of informing the nominee of his or her nomination. Placement on the ballot will be determined immediately following the nominations.

The term of office will run for two years, ending with the installation of officers following the regularly scheduled elections in September 2025.

The secret ballot election will be held prior to the September 2023 meeting via mailed ballots sent to the last known mailing address for all members of Local 2366. If your address has changed, please notify Local 2366 immediately or change it via AFGE.org.

Additional information regarding the election shall be provided in a separate written notice, sent to the last known mailing address for all members of Local 2366.

Each candidate may have a reasonable number of observers, who are members, present throughout the election process, including the tally of ballots

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New transfer policies for USBP employees

USBP issued three new internal operating procedures (IOP) recently:

  • Employee Care Reassignment Program IOP — IOP-2140-002-ECRP
  • Medical Reassignment Program IOP — IOP-2140-001-MRP
  • Spousal Reassignment Program IOP — IOP-2140-003-SRP

Copies of all three IOPs are available on Local 2366’s mobile app (go to the Agreements and Policy Section).

Employee Care Reassignment Program

This poorly named transfer program addresses two specific situations:

  • When an employee’s child needs special educational facilities that are not available near the current duty station; and
  • When an employee requests preference for living in a particular area to facilitate a court-ordered child custody obligation.

This policy was originally expected to address the needs of an employee’s sick family member who does not live in the employee’s household, but some caring and empathetic USBP managers decided to remove that from the final policy.

The union is working on addressing the needs of sick family members who do not live in an employee’s immediate household, whether as part of this IOP, in the Medical Reassignment Program, or elsewhere.

Medical Reassignment Program (formerly known as Compassionate Transfer Program)

It would appear that management in USBP’s Workforce Management Division (WMD) realized that they were not being compassionate by excluding sick family members because they didn’t live in an employee’s immediate household.

So, instead of addressing the needs of the workforce, WMD renamed it the Medical Reassignment Program. However, they did speed up the process a bit by removing some of the red tape in the routing and approval process, though we shall see how it impacts things.

The union is working on addressing the requirement for sick family members to live in the immediate household that, to our knowledge, no other federal agency requires.

Spousal Reassignment Program

The final policy is still being negotiated, but here are some of the major changes:

  • Reassignment eligibility is extended to USBP employees who are married to DHS employees or active-duty military personnel;
  • Reassignment eligibility is extended to employees in not-to-exceed temporary positions, provided the employees previously held permanent positions in the competitive service that were not lost because of performance or conduct reasons in accordance with 5 C.F.R. § 335.103(c)(3)(v);
  • For approved cases, employees will be eligible to compete for competitive job opportunities immediately after entrance on duty at the new station; and
  • The terms of any active relocation incentive service agreements would still apply since the reassignment would be based on the employee’s needs.