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Show Unfair Hiring Practices Here An open letter to Utah's Congressional Congres-sional Delegation regarding the National Park Service: Regrettably, circumstances have come to a point that I am asking for some assistance from outside the National Park Service to address my concerns of what is taking place at Bryce Canyon National Park. The superintendent at Bryce Canyon is away from the park an inordinate amount of the time, reportedly re-portedly on assignments that are costing the taxpayers a considerable amount of money. He frequently leaves supervision of the park to an acting superintendent. Once a year the superintendent himself asks all employees to be in attendance at the park, for what he calls a "Jeremiad Session." These sessions, he has said, are for employees em-ployees to express any concerns they may have or to speak out about problems they are experiencing. He made it clear that all employees are expected to attend. In 1994 there were two Jeremiad Sessions held in the maintenance division. He required re-quired all maintenance employees to be there, even going so far as to say he would pay time and-a-half for an employee to attend, if it were his day off. The superintendent urged employees em-ployees to express their concerns, saying that there would be no repercussions for voicing their observations ob-servations and opinions but there certainly have been repercussions and they are ongoing. Through these "Jeremiad Sessions," the superintendent was made aware of all the problems within the maintenance division, and very few have since been acted upon. Supervisors of the maintenance mainte-nance division have continued with their wrong doing, apparently with tacit approval of the superintendent, since he has made no move to take action to correct their actions. As a federal agency, the NPS stresses equal opportunity, but equal opportunity oppor-tunity simply doesn't exist at Bryce Canyon. (See Unfair Hiring Practices Here On Page 3A) Unfair Hiring Practices From Page Two Maintenance division employees continually work under ongoing threats and intimidation. As an example, ex-ample, because I asked the question why we (myself and others who also wanted to know) were being placed on intermittent employment status I experienced numerous repercussions. Just from that one inquiry I was fired three times that same day, and then later that same day asked to remain until my current cur-rent appointment was completed. All personnel actions changing employee status were canceled. Under intermittent employment, we would not be able to accrue or use leave, thus saving money for the NPS (which is already saving money by hiring so many seasonal employees) so that the monies can be spent for administrative personnel person-nel and excessive travel and training. train-ing. When my appointment ended and I left for the season, other seasonal sea-sonal employees were placed on intermittent status. I was also told that when the 1994 season started, I would be among those to be called back, but when the season did start, others were hired and I was not. I subsequently subse-quently called the personnelist to ask if I had been terminated and, if so, for what cause. Immediately after my call, I was contacted and asked to return to work, and they suddenly wanted me to start in the middle of a pay period. I believe all of these actions were retaliatory and a direct result of my having questioned the new policy of placing plac-ing longtime seasonal employees into intermittent employment. Recently a man ended his one-to-four year appointment without even a break in service, in the specialized spe-cialized field of historic preservation. preserva-tion. According to regulations, this justified a more permanent subject-to-furlough position being formed at Bryce Canyon for that worker. However, that worker was terminated termi-nated at the end of four years and his position was filled by another person with no experience. The original person justifying the position posi-tion wasn't even given the opportunity opportu-nity to apply for it, obvious discrimination. discrim-ination. The position was filled by a person with no historic preservation preserva-tion experience who was hired previously pre-viously in a janitorial position, then converted to the furlough position. This certainly did not qualify as "sound business management," not even in the park service. The "seasoned" historic preservation preser-vation worker, who was not brought back to any position at Bryce Canyon, had received numerous awards and recognition during his tenure. His final evaluation was even rated "superior." He received a Maintenance Advisory Group award from Rocky Mountain Region for outstanding achievement achieve-ment in the preservation of park resources re-sources and was cited as Employee of the Quarter at Bryce Canyon also. Along with fellow historic preservation crew members he traveled trav-eled on assignment "on-loan" for numerous preservation projects at other NPS locations. It has been the policy through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in the past, that a worker who is not permanent can become so if specialized in a field and that fulfills the mission of the NPS. The NPS as it is operating operat-ing at Bryce Canyon has been violating vio-lating many of its own hiring and retention policies and other policies that are federal standards of employment. em-ployment. They require investigation investiga-tion in detail. For example, at Bryce Canyon, a position was advertised for three days only and the personnelist was instructed not to let anyone in maintenance become aware of it. Other positions have been advertised adver-tised as requiring in-park occupancy, occu-pancy, then the requirement was lifted after the advertising closed and the person hired was not required re-quired to live on the park. Advertising positions saying required re-quired occupancy, effectively eliminates elim-inates most locals from applying. Realistically, one would think that the NPS service would prefer to hire those who live outside the park to save taxpayers the ever-increasing costs of in-park housing. Another important point.. .Why does the park need four supervisors in the maintenance division drawing draw-ing large salaries to supervise 20 employees in peak season and as few as 10 to 12 employees in the off-season? This has to be a terrible waste of taxpayers money. There is a terrible terri-ble waste of manpower and materials materi-als due to the inexperience of supervisors, su-pervisors, evidenced in their inability inabil-ity to order in correct amounts of materials for projects and to effectively effec-tively supervise their men for maximum max-imum efficiency. The superintendents at each park and their supervisors should be held accountable for their personnel actions ac-tions and for the resources of the NPS. The superintendent has said that if we don't like what is going on at Bryce Canyon, then we should go work for the Postal Service. For a number of years now most employees in supervisory positions at Bryce Canyon have had consistent consis-tent increases in their pay, while lower-graded employees have to continually ask for desk audits just to be paid at the level that their jobs are rated. Many employees don't even ask for fear of retaliation from management. Most of those supervisors super-visors have equally received continuous con-tinuous training in order to advance in their chosen fields. Seasonals however, are virtually excluded from training but because they effect ef-fect the majority of the work at the park, they are perhaps the ones who most require additional upgrading and training. These are only a few examples of illegal andor totally irresponsible irresponsi-ble hiring practices taking place at Bryce. What it really boils down to is, if you aren't in the clique, (and local people rarely are) then you are down the road. These are only a few of my concerns con-cerns and I would like to have a federal investigator come to Bryce Canyon to check on these things. I would expect an investigator to contact me for much greater detail and would expect to accept responsibility respon-sibility for my complaints and the charges I have made. I am also aware of others who have resigned or been terminated at Bryce Canyon due to their differing with management manage-ment about hiring practices and can put your investigator in contact with those persons. If all of America's national parks are operated in the same manner as Bryce Canyon, the matter clearly goes beyond incompetency into fraud. I believe someone, somewhere some-where in the system, should be able to right these wrongs. I write as a longtime past-employee and one who loved his job, and, I speak for others who no longer want to work at Bryce because be-cause of these unfair and unequal practices. I am concerned as a taxpayer tax-payer for others I know still working work-ing at Bryce, not at the level of supervisory su-pervisory and administrative positions posi-tions employees whose jobs are being sacrificed to pay for excessive exces-sive travel and training sessions for supervisors and administrators where little is learned to benefit the parks and where much is gained to promote job security and advancement advance-ment for those already making more money than they are worth to the American taxpayer. Floyd Richards Tropic, Utah 84776-0117 |