NFFE
Forest Service Council President Ron Thatcher's December 5, 2008
open letter to the Chief on Safety: The letter begins,
"Time and again, we have heard from Chief after Chief that
the agency’s top priority is to ensure the safety of Forest
Service employees. In contrast to this statement, many employees
have come to believe that the purpose of post-accident investigations
is less to develop lessons learned and improve safety than it
is to assign blame. This belief is not easily refuted, given the
current policy vacuum and recent events. With all due respect,
if safety is truly the agency’s top priority, then it is
long past time to back this statement up with policy..."
Word
pdf
NFFE Forest Service Council
President Ron Thatcher's June 18, 2008 testimony before the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee: Prior to the
government-wide OPM policy change to address “diploma mills,”
OPM had approved a supplemental Qualification Standard, GS-0401
Fire Management Specialist, for which in-house courses administered
by NWCG counted toward the education requirement... We urge enactment
of legislation to restore the standing of these courses... Click
here
for entire testimony.
GS-0401 Fire Management Specialist
Update: Deadline to meet GS-0401 education requirements
extended to October 1, 2010. Agencies commit to retroactive purchase
of credits for in-house NWCG courses for incubents. See chronology
and briefing for more information, including how NFFE continues
the fight for a sane solution to this mess.
Comments from the field:
HTML,
posted May 12, 2008. Some survey respondents have given permission
to have their comments on the GS-0401 Fire Management Specialist
qualification issue posted on the web in order to stimulate discussion.
NFFE has suggested the agency perform content analysis of employee
comments, since we feel it is critical that leadership listen
to the field on the impacts this is having. If you wish to weigh
in, send your comments to nffe@fs.fed.us.
Congressional Briefing Paper:
OPM Policy Threatens Nation's Firefighting and Emergency Response
Capabilities: Topic is effect OPM policy change on education
requirements will have on capabilities. During May 19-23, 2008,
two dozen union reps will be taking this message to the Hill:
tell OPM to restore credit for NWCG courses! (May 5, 2008) Word
Chronology of IFPM implementation,
with links to primary sources (May 5, 2008) Word
|
