The National Treasury Employees Union is expecting federal agencies to bargain over the impact and implementation of sequestration if the across-the-board federal spending cuts begin as expected March 1, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said Feb. 26 during the union's annual legislative conference.

Among other issues, she said, NTEU expects to be able to discuss the way furlough days are distributed and agency plans for allowing employees to volunteer for furloughs in order to allow other employees to avoid furlough days.

According to Kelley, NTEU also expects to renegotiate existing work deadlines affecting union-represented agency employees. The existing deadlines were bargained based on a five-day workweek, meaning that agencies calling for employee furloughs will need to sit down with NTEU to discuss revised schedules, she said.

Other bargainable issues, Kelley said, include expedited approval processes, where needed, to allow agency employees to seek and accept second jobs and a relaxation of applicable agency rules requiring employees to maintain good credit ratings. Explaining the latter issue during a news briefing after her conference speech, Kelley said some agency employees represented by NTEU may have a tougher time paying their bills if sequestration results in furloughs and reduced paychecks.

The Office of Management and Budget has reminded federal agencies that they need to negotiate with their employees' union representatives regarding the impact and implementation of sequestration-related cuts that affect agency employees, Kelley said. Beyond that, she noted, agencies are required to give their employees 30 days' notice of furloughs.

Kelley said that of the 31 agencies whose unionized employees are represented in whole or in part by NTEU, only the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection has formally notified the union thus far of its furlough plans in advance of the across-the-board spending cuts set to hit federal agencies beginning March 1.

CBP has told NTEU it expects agency employees to take 14 furlough days due to budget sequestration, most likely between mid- to late April and the Sept. 30 end of fiscal year 2013. But NTEU and CBP have not yet begun negotiating over how the agency will implement the furlough days, she said, adding that negotiations over the impact and implementation of CBP's sequestration plan likely will begin next week.

Kelley said at the NTEU conference that the Internal Revenue Service has not yet provided NTEU with comparable information about its plans to deal with agency funding shortfalls caused by sequestration.

She added, however, that she does not necessarily regard the lack of information in a negative light. "In my view, the more time they wait, the longer we have before furloughs can begin," Kelley said of notification from federal agencies regarding their plans for dealing with sequestration.

In other public sector news:

• Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sent a formal letter to Congress stating that the Defense Department will consider furloughs for its entire civilian workforce should sequestration begin. At a news briefing, however, DOD officials said some of DOD's 800,000 civilian employees would not be subject to furloughs, including Senate-confirmed political appointees, civilians serving in combat areas, and those "guarding life and property" elsewhere. 

• In a memorandum to agency employees, Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar said the department in response to sequestration expects to furlough thousands of permanent employees for as many as 22 work days and make cuts that will have "devastating impacts" on the agency. 

• Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the bulk of state employees in Illinois, is telling its 40,000 members to prepare for a strike in light of stagnant contract negotiations and escalating tensions with the administration of Gov. Pat Quinn (D), including over the governor's approach to what Quinn says is $97 billion in unfunded liabilities for the five retirement systems covering state employees. 

• Chicago reached a tentative four-year labor agreement with a union representing its 1,180 police sergeants, which Mayor Rahm Emanuel said would help the city meet its unfunded pension liabilities. However, the tentative pact with the Chicago Police Sergeants' Association drew a rebuke from the Fraternal Order of Police, which accused the sergeants' union of capitulating to terms that boost the retirement age, hike employee contributions for retirement benefits, and diminish cost-of-living adjustments for current and future retirees.