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Show Dec. 17, 1992 Phone numbers Action Line The base agencies listed below can be contacted if you have a complaint or a problem with their services: Security Police Morale, Welfare and Recreation Base Restaurants RetirementCompensation (civilian) Social Actions Employee Relations Military Pay Civilian Pay .'. Air Force Suggestion Program IG Complaints (for appointment) Fraud, Waste and Abuse (recording) 649th Medical Group Civil Engineering Public Affairs Military Housing Maintenance Safety Office Union Action Line is your opportunity to make Hill AFB a better place to live, work and play. on LOGDIS or or send When you call Ext. Office Vision to ID "ACTION," your comments will be recorded and staffed through the agency responsible for action. Please give your supervisor and chain of command the opportunity to work with you in answering questions and solving problems before calling ACTION LINE. This will help me better serve your interests through ACTION LINE. Items of basewide interest to the Hill work force will be published in the Hilltop Times. Maj. Gen. Dale W. Thompson Jr. Ogden ALC commander Can I withdraw funds? An article published in the Hilltop Times stated that employees could withdraw their money from their retirement funds at anytime. I would like to withdraw my money in order to use it as a down payment on a home, but personnel tells me these funds cannot be drawn unless I terminate. Who is right, the article or personnel? i All Civil Service Retirement System em- ployees have an amount equal to 7 percent of their pay automatically withheld. That goes into the general retirement fund. Employees wishing an added benefit at retirement may voluntarily contribute an additional amount directly to the Office of Personnel Management. Only that additional, voluntary amount may be withdrawn from the fund at any time. However, depending on age and retirement eligibility, it may be subject to the 10 percent tax penalty. The entitlements office advised you correctly regarding withdrawal of your normal CSRS withholding contributions. That can only occur upon separation or retirement. Regarding your need for a loan, a related but separate consideration may be the Thrift Savings Plan, if you are enrolled. There is a loan program that allows application for a loan against your savings for the purchase of a primary residence. For additional information regarding TSP, call Carolyn Bronson, Personnel Directorate, at Ext. Forms and information regarding the voluntary contribution to OPM may be obtained from Mary Revoir, DPCEB, Ext. a downsizing emphasis the military, including big payoffs, why am I now reading in the Hilltop Times about a bonus period expiring as of the end of September? Paying big bonuses to get people out of the military at the same time they are paying big bonuses to get people to stay seems to border on fraud, waste and abuse. Why don't they just let people go at the end of their contract rather than paying big bonuses to get them to leave the military? The military, like any large business, has numerous people with many different skills. Attracting and retaining people in some of these skills is extremely difficult. Despite all of the downsizing, there are still a handful of military skills in which we are criticaleven with our reduced misly short of people sion. These are the only" Air Force people being bonuses, and none of those paid were eligible for any of for bonuses the eligible the separation incentives. We simply could not afford to let those eligible for a bonus go because we could not accomplish our mission without them. As you can see, under this set of circumstances, there is no inconsistency. We paid incentives for people to leave in skills where we did not need them and we paid bonuses to people in critical skills where we do not have enough people. Regarding your comment about just letting people go at the end of their enlistment contract: For at least the last 30 years, the Air Force has considered certain people as careerists. Before the volunteer force, anyone who had beyond four years of service was considered a M ed careerist. if you leave before retirement eligibility, you get nothing we allowed all of those who passed this point, and who continued to serve honorably, the opportunity to stay until they were eligible to retire at 20 years of service. This implied contract became more pronounced after the implementation of the force, since all military members had volunteered to enlist and had some degree of career intent from the initial enlistment. Until 1992, this implied contract was rarely violated. However, faced with the significant force reductions in 1992 and 1993, the Air Force had no choice. We had to reduce so much that we could no longer protect those who were previously considered careerists. In view of the implied contract, our past practice, and the need to treat our people fairly, the Department of Defense and Congress authorized the separation incentives. Without them, we would not have been able to meet our reduction targets and still have a viable force remaining on active duty. The Air Force has long been proud of the way both military and we take care of our family civilian. We work very hard to avoid involuntarily separating anyone to meet our strength goals. We have always held that we must take care of our people and treat them fairly. We do not like to use a reduction in force on military or civilian workers. We only do so when we have no other options. I am proud of the way the Air Force has managed its strength reductions and even more pleased that Congress has also recognized the need for retirement and separation incentives for civilians. vested moves Justifydetailed some of the the bonuses? Why With all the on Since the military retirement system is not 15 Hilltop Times OThey GS-- 9 air terminal workers into positions at the same time they were placing GS-7- s and GS-5- s straight across, leaving GS-9- s open on the base. How can they justify this? GS-- 4 il After a review of the options, I decided that air terminal employees would be detailed to temporary workload anywhere on the base instead of conducting a technical realignment. This option was best for the entire center as well as the air terminal employees involved. The details done in this manner are temporary. As valid vacancies become available, air terminal employees will be realigned into the vacancies for which they qualify. We negotiated the procedures to be used for placing the air terminal personnel with the union. Let me review the processes that were used. First, available positions were posted on bulletin boards in the air freight terminal and employees were asked to volunteer for the positions that interested them. After the volunteer lists were received in civilian personnel, employees were detailed based on their qualifications, the position for which they volunteered, and then by service seniority using their reduction-in-forcdate. computation In some cases, employees were detailed to positions other than those for which they had volunteered, because someone with more tenure had already been detailed to their choices. Employees with higher RIF service computation dates were assigned to the GS-- positions available for detail. It must be recognized that given our current manpower and funding situation, we simply cannot place every air terminal employee on a detail that pleases them. We have' treated everyone involved fairly and have ensured continued em r e 9 50 11 43 42 16 28 51 75 01 05 05 18 38 01 63 33 57 ployment for all of those involved. If you have any further questions, contact or Nyla Williams, Sandy Rawson, Ext. Ext. out Help us told all of us who have had our They payroll records transferred to Ohio to keep a copy of our last payroll statement, be cause our retirement balance and other information will not be reflected on the next pay stub we receive from Ohio. Would it be possible to place a copy of our last statement in our 201 file just in case the one we keep is destroyed in a fire or some other disaster? The notification you received telling you to keep your last leave and earnings statement was intended for your personal records and reference. When an employee changes a payroll office, the sum that has been paid into the retirement fund is sent to the Office of Personnel Management for record keeping purposes. Only the amount paid into retirement after the transfer will be reflected on his or her new leave and 3 I earnings statement. The official personnel folder is the source of factual data about a person's federal employment while in service and after separation. Records in the folder are used by agencies to determine status, eligibility, employee rights and benefits under pertinent laws and regulations governing federal employment. Information as to whether or not an employee has paid into the retirement fund can also be found in the OPF. The Federal Personnel Manual Supplement 293-3- 1 is very explicit about what can be filed in the OPF. Papers and records not listed in FM 293-3- 1 or that the agency has not specifically designated for filing, cannot be filed in the OPF. Unfortunately, leave and earning statements are not authorized to be filed in the OPF. I appreciate your concern over the loss of this record through a fire in your home or another disaster. We are all encouraged to have our important papers in a safety deposit box at a separate location. Some people are now purchasing fireproof storage boxes for use in the home. If you have additional questions, please call JoAnn Osborne at Ext. ramp? Why another to the is the Air Force going of putting in a handicap wheelchair ramp on the side of the Bldg. 1239 when there is already one on the south end? It seems like fraud, waste and abuse. Besides that, it is eliminating six parking spaces. What is the justification? Installation of a handicap wheelchair ramp 1 at the northwest end of Bldg. 1239 is part of a basewide project to provide handicap access to all buildings. This action is being taken in accordance with federal law. The ramp on the south end of the building, which was originally constructed for fork lift operations, does not meet legal requirements to serve as a wheelchair ramp. The slope is too steep and there is no intermediate flat area for the handicapped person to rest. The six parking spaces will not be eliminated by the wheelchair ramp. These six parking spaces will be repainted immediately west of the handicap ramp after the ramp has been completed. If you have further questions regarding this new ramp, please contact Edward Lindeman, chief, accounting quality systems branch, at Ext. and he will be happy to assist you. QWhy i |