PARKERSBURG — Some Bureau of the Fiscal Service employees who stand to lose their jobs could wind up doing the same work as contractors under a proposal being supported by their union.
Up to 200 workers in the federal agency’s Parkersburg offices could be affected by plans to outsource work done in the Retail Security Services’ Division of Customer Service, said Eric Engle, chief steward of National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 190, which represents some employees of the bureau.
Workers in that division assist with Treasury bonds and other marketable securities.
According to an April 10 article by Government Executive, a federal government business trade publication, the work of the Division of Customer Service is to be done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and U.S. Bank.
Emails and a call requesting comment about the situation from media representatives at the bureau and the Treasury Department, of which it is a part, have not been returned.
Engle said a member of NTEU has proposed creating a limited liability partnership, to be sponsored by a banking organization, to bid on the services. The proposal, which is supported by the union, would allow former employees “to continue to do the servicing of the Treasury securities that these folks did for all these years,” Engle said.
“If so, they would likely make more money than they did at Treasury,” he said.
Engle said the Fiscal Service workers are uniquely qualified to do the work that people at the entities to which it would be outsourced are not as familiar with.
“It is early, early days,” he said. “We’re excited about the possibility.”
