GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES LESS SECURE U.S. WORKERS FACE BUYOUTS, LOW MORALE AS BUDGETS CUT.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Thousands of federal employees face losing their security blanket as Congress and the White House seek to cut budgets and streamline government by trimming payrolls and farming out work to private contractors.

``The old guarantees are pretty much going out the window,'' said Frank Barkley of Van Nuys, a former Department of Veterans Services maintenance worker and president of Local 1061 of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest labor group representing federal workers.

``Government workers are some of the best in the world,'' added Barkley, whose local represents workers at the Sepulveda VA Medical Center in North Hills. ``But instead of giving us the tools we need to do our tasks or the training to fill new positions, they're wanting to give our jobs away by contracting out things like housekeeping.''

The ranks of federal employees, who have enjoyed immunity from the ups and downs of the economy, as well as generous vacations and other benefits, have fallen from 3.1 million in 1990 to 2.7 million this year under a downsizing and privatization program launched in 1994 by former President Clinton. Under Clinton's ``Reinventing Government'' drive, thousands of government employees were pink-slipped from supposed lifetime jobs.

A similar effort was announced Aug. 25 by President George W. Bush, who advocated $25,000-per-employee buyouts to trim the federal payroll and increased contracting with the private sector.

``Americans demand top-quality service from the private sector,'' said Bush, who campaigned on a promise to slash and streamline the federal bureaucracy. ``They should get the same top-quality service from their government.''

``We're not talking about shrinking government,'' said Kay Coles James, whom Bush appointed as director of the federal Office of Personnel Management. ``We're talking about right-sizing government.''

Critics of federal work force reductions stress that most of the downsizing to date has resulted from military base closings.

They also argue that trimming the federal payroll has produced negligible savings for taxpayers, who are still paying the bill for privatized work. And they stress that contractors have done little to improve government efficiency and service, noting such boondoggles as the recent loss of thousands of tax returns and payments by a Pittsburgh bank that was under contract to the Internal Revenue Service.

``The good news is that President Bush appears to recognize that there is a crisis, but his plan appears to be counterproductive,'' said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.

``We need to recognize that federal workers provide a valuable service,'' Waxman said. ``This outsourcing of work to private contractors often costs us more and does a worse job for the public.''

Waxman also cited recent reports from the General Accounting Office and federal agencies that an estimated 900,000 federal employees will be eligible to retire in the next five years.

The AFGE and many agency officials also argue that work force reductions have been poorly planned. They claim that, as cost-cutters have pursued an effort based entirely on reducing the total size of the work force, they have also created severe shortages in key occupations.

Critical shortfalls have been identified among Veterans Administration hospital nurses, Forest Service firefighters, Energy Department nuclear waste cleanup experts and shuttle flight specialists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

``We're inundated with more work and cutting staff at the same time,'' said Carol Fehner of Oceanside, a veteran Social Security Administration claims worker and an official with the AFGE unit that represents Social Security employees in Southern California.

``It eviscerates employee morale when the work backs up and the answer is to contract out, with the idea that the private sector can do a better job than we can,'' Fehner said.

Federal employees and their largely Democratic allies in Congress are pushing for merit salary increases, special hiring and retention bonuses and expanded skill training programs for federal workers.

They are also requesting a 4.6 percent pay hike for federal workers, who got a 3.2 percent boost last year. Bush has proposed a 3.6 percent increase. Any pay hike would also apply to House and Senate members.

Waxman cited a recent report by the Federal Salary Council, a nonpartisan panel that advises Congress and the White House, that found federal pay was an average of 32 percent below the rates paid for comparable jobs in the private sector.

John Challenger, chief executive officer of one of the nation's top executive placement companies, said government employment has little appeal for many professionals.

``They see government as a place where people become complacent and where there is no way to guarantee productivity because there appear to be no consequences for poor performance,'' said Challenger, whose Chicago-based Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc. has offices in Los Angeles and Orange County. ``And they perceive that government experience does not look as good on a resume as a private sector job. In the private sector, there's an assumption that success is achieved in a more competitive setting.''

Maciak Kolodziejcak, graduate adviser at UCLA's School of Public Policy and Social Research, has discerned a different trend.

``Each year, we're seeing more interest in working for the government,'' said Kolodziejcak, who noted that several recent top UCLA graduates are now working for agencies in Washington. ``They learn in their courses about bureaucracy, limits on funding and the complexities of the work, but many of our students are still interested in using government as a vehicle for change.''

UNCLE SAM'S WORKERS

Here are some facts about the federal government's civilian work force:

Size:

Total: 2,704,015

In California: 244,566

Largest employers:

Department of Defense, 1,316,417 (not including active duty military personnel);

U.S. Postal Service, 856,550 (96,731 in California, including 52,067 in the Los Angeles area);

Department of Veterans Affairs, 223,137.

Basic salary range:

$14,244 for new employee in lowest grade (General Schedule 1) to $103,623 for veteran worker at highest grade (GS 15).

Southern California salary range:

$16,291 (GS 1) to $118,514 (GS 15), including a 14.37 percent ``locality pay'' differential to offset higher than U.S. average cost of living in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Benefits:

Health, life insurance, retirement and 401(k) savings plans; 13 days of paid annual vacation during first three years of service; 20 days for years four through 14; 26 days for years 15 and up; 13 days of paid sick leave per year, 10 paid federal holidays.

Work force profile:

Average age: 46

Average length of service: 17 years

Education: 40 percent college graduates, 60 percent high school graduates.

Gender: 55 percent male, 45 percent female.

Race: 70 percent white, 17 percent African-American, 6.5 percent Latino, 4.4 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 2.1 percent American Indian.

SOURCES: Office of Personnel Management, Census Bureau, U.S. Postal Service. Employment and salary data as of May, 2001. Work force profile as of September 1999.

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UNCLE SAM'S WORKERS (see text)