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Section 519 Update:
DoD Tech Survey Gets Green Light
by Ben Banchs
Washington, DC
(November 13, 2012) – DoD held a meeting with LIUNA and other Unions
that represent National Guard Technicians in order to provide an update
on the FY12 NDAA Section 519 Study, and to request input for a
DoD-sponsored technician workforce survey which is now slated to take place sometime next
Spring.
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The meeting was hosted by LTC Patrick Zimmerman of DoD
Reserve Affairs. The tone of this encounter was much friendlier than
in
previous occasions. LTC Zimmerman provided all those in
attendance with an update on the
status of the Section 519 study and the adjusted timeline.
The original deadline for the study was supposed to be December
31, 2012. However, according to DoD, the original
contract that was awarded to CNA to conduct the Section 519 Study
contained no provisions for a survey of the workforce. This was
a huge oversight because Section 519 of the FY 12 NDAA contained
very specific language requiring DoD "to
ensure involvement and input of military technicians." According
to LTC Zimmerman, it wasn't that DoD didn't want to conduct a
survey of the technician workforce, rather it was that the workforce survey portion of the
study had to be added to the contract. Now that the contract has
been modified, and the survey portion of the requirement has
funding, CNA can move forward with conducting the survey.
LTC Zimmerman stated that CNA was currently in the process of
developing the survey. CNA considered two approaches: focus
groups of a select number of States, or a web-based survey of
the entire technician work force. Based on cost and reach CNA
opted for a web-based survey of all technicians. We agree with
this approach. Completion of the survey will be voluntary, and
is expected to take about 20 minutes.
CNA expect the draft-survey to be ready by December 31, 2012, at
which point it will turn it over to DoD for review to ensure the
questions are appropriate. That process should take a couple of
months, and the survey should be ready to hit the field sometime
in March 2013. That allows for an August 2013 survey completion,
which should allow DoD to present the report to Congress by
September 2013, a full year after their original expected
completion date.
We asked LTC Zimmerman if Congress was aware of the delay and
new timelines and he indicated that DoD would be sending an
official letter informing them of the issues with the survey and
the expected delay. However, they have informally notified
Congress of these difficulties and Congress has indicated that
they are willing to extend the original deadline of December 31,
2012.
LIUNA asked also LTC Zimmerman if this delay would affect the
other phases of the DoD study into the Full-Time Support
workforce of the Reserve components. He indicated that the rest
of the study has been cancelled. The assumption here is that had
the National Guard Technician study not been a requirement of
the FY12 NDAA then this part of the study would have also been
cancelled. This is an indication of how important LIUNA's
efforts were to have the study language included in the law. If
this study wasn't a "legal" requirement, it would have never
happened.
LIUNA also questioned the independence of the survey. Concerns
were brought forth about collaboration between NGB and the
Adjutant General's Association of the United States (AGAUS).
According to an
NGB
newsletter published last summer, the AGAUS submitted
recommendations about the technician program through CNA in
conjunction with NGB. This is a conflict of interest. The AGAUS
is a private non-profit special interest group. They should not
be allowed to sneak their "opinion" in through the back-door by
disguising it as an official recommendation by NGB, which is an
official entity of US Governement. LIUNA forwarded the NGB
newsletter to LTC Zimmerman for review and asked DoD to ensure
that NGB differentiate between recommendations put forth by them
as an arm of DoD, and by the AGAUS, a special interest group.
In the meantime, LIUNA NGDC has been conducting their own survey
of technicians. If you have not already contributed to this
survey please feel free to do so by
clicking here.
Point of contact for this article is Ben Banchs at
benbanchs@liuna-ngdc.org.
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