NRC inks new contract, includes improved worker benefits

An agency widely considered "one of the best places to work in the federal government" has raised the bar in its effort to recruit and retain the "best and brightest" staffers.

Earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission quietly put into effect a brand new four year contract for its staff negotiated with the National Treasury Employees Union. Colleen Kelley is national president of NTEU.

At the NRC, we have negotiated, what I think, is the maximum flexibility in schedules. Including split shifts, they have a schedule called "Newflex" and gliding work schedules. And under these new flexibilities for work schedules, employees can start their workday as early as 5am, or as late as 8pm, and all they have to do is get their office director's approval.

Jeri Buchholtz is Associate Director for Human Resource Policy and Operations at the NRC in Rockville, Md. She offers these further details on the new program detailed in the new collective bargaining agreement.

It allows employees to vary the number of hours per day that they work, so, for example, they could work 5 hours on a Monday, and 10 hours on a Tuesday, and it also allows longer breaks in the middle of the day than a typical lunch hour. So, for example, an employee could work for 6 hours, from 5am til 11am in the morning, and then take a 2 or 3 hour break in the middle of the day, perhaps to deal with childcare issues, and then complete their work by working another two hours in the evening.

Buchholtz says one of the keys to the Newplex flexible work schedule program, which also includes Senior Executive Service employees, is that a supervisor makes the determination if an employee can participate.

"You do indeed have to fill our a work schedule form, and have that approved by your supervisors," she said. "Of course, the supervisor has to look across the range of his responsibilities, make sure there's sufficient office coverage, to make sure they accomplish the agency's mission."

Buchholtz says in general, employees who have "fully successful performance, the ability to self-start, to complete work without the direct supervision of their first line supervisor" will be the most likely to be eligible for the Newflex program.

NTEU's Kelley says the new NRC contract includes newly expanded telework provisions, as well as increased capabilities for rewarding high-performing NRC staffers.

"We increased the awards pool, that's available to employees to earn performance awards. And, along with increasing the amount of money that's available, NTEU is interested in making sure there's transparency in how those awards are distributed to employees. So NTEU and the NRC negotiated a provision that directly links performance awards to performance ratings."

Kelley was complimentary of the new contract, saying "I think there's a real recognition that in order to recruit and retain the quality employees that Federal agencies need and want to have, there has to be a real appreciation for balancing work life with personal and family responsibilities."

For her part, Buchholtz said that prior to opening formal talks on the new contract, the NRC and NTEU had an opportunity to conduct a small-scale pilot for the flexible scheduling program.

"So, while we had some differences in implementation," she explained, "and how it might be implemented in the agency, because we were focused on the same result, overall negotiations went extremely smoothly and I think we came up with a good outcome that benefits all the employees of the agency."

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