USBP issued three new internal operating procedures (IOP) recently:

1. Employee Care Reassignment Program IOP — IOP-2140-002-ECRP
2. Medical Reassignment Program IOP — IOP-2140-001-MRP
3. Spousal Reassignment Program IOP — IOP-2140-003-SRP

Copies of all three IOPs are attached to this email, and below are some details about each. They are all currently in effect, though the Union is currently negotiating the terms of all three IOPs.

1.    Employee Care Reassignment Program
This poorly named transfer program addresses two specific situations:

• When an employee’s child needs special educational facilities that are not available near the current duty station; and
• When an employee requests preference for living in a particular area to facilitate a court-ordered child custody obligation.

This policy was originally expected to address the needs of an employee’s sick family member who does not live in the employee’s household, but USBP Management decided to remove that from the final policy.

The Union is working on addressing the needs of sick family members who do not live in an employee’s immediate household, whether as part of this IOP, in the Medical Reassignment Program, or elsewhere.

2.  Medical Reassignment Program (formerly known as Compassionate Transfer Program)

It would appear that management in USBP’s Workforce Management Division (WMD) realized that they were not being compassionate by excluding sick family members because they didn’t live in an employee’s immediate household.

So, instead of addressing the needs of the workforce, WMD renamed it as the Medical Reassignment Program. However, they did speed up the process a bit by removing some of the red tape in the routing and approval process, though we shall see how it impacts things.

The Union is working on addressing the requirement for sick family members to live in the immediate household that, to our knowledge, no other federal agency requires. 

3.  Spousal Reassignment Program

The final policy is still being negotiated, but here are some of the major changes:

• Reassignment eligibility is extended to USBP employees who are married to DHS employees or active-duty military personnel;
• Reassignment eligibility is extended to employees in not-to-exceed temporary positions, provided the employees previously held permanent positions in the competitive service that were not lost because of performance or conduct reasons in accordance with 5 C.F.R. § 335.103(c)(3)(v);
• For approved cases, employees will be eligible to compete for competitive job opportunities immediately after entrance on duty at the new station; and
• The terms of any active relocation incentive service agreements would still apply since the reassignment would be based on the employee’s needs.

We will keep you posted on changes to each of these programs as we sort out some of the issues with the agency.

Stay safe,

Hector Garza

President

Local 2455