Subscribe SSA staff visited by GAO indicated that they haveless time to spend with customers potentially leading to
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SSA staff visited by GAO indicated that they haveless time to spend with customers, "potentially leading to mistakes and alsolimiting the ability of staff to ensure that customers fully understand theiroptions and benefits." That, in turn, has increased the stress on SSAemployees. GAO asked 153 SSA employees at 21 offices to rate their stress levels theyexperienced trying to complete their work in a "timely manner," and 65 percentreported feeling stress to a "great" or "very great" degree. The stress, GAOsaid, was felt most acutely by office managers, 74 percent of whom describedhigh levels of stress. Moreover, the workload pressures have "led to cutbacksin the amount of time allocated for training and mentoring new staff," whileSSA has reduced the number of continuing disability reviews and SSIredeterminations that are conducted to ensure that disability beneficiariesare paid the correct amounts."The data from the GAO report and the reports from our field offices do notpaint a rosy picture," continued Gage. "These are the facts and the horrorstories we get in from the field.They can't be ignored." Further underscoring the stress and dissatisfaction from SSA employees is arecent arbitration ruling for a grievance filed by the Association ofAdministration Law Judges (AALJ) where Arbitrator Michael Murphy issued astinging rebuke of Commissioner Astrue's conduct. In his meetings with thejudges, the arbitrator wrote, Astrue acted "in an abrupt, abusive and hostilemanner." One of the judges, a former deputy general counsel of the NationalLabor Relations Board, testified after his meeting with Astrue that he "hadnever been treated in such a discourteous manner" and "fully appreciated" fromAstrue's actions "how threatened a union member could feel." Moreover, policy changes enacted by Commissioner Astrue's administrationrecently prompted the AFL-CIO Executive Council, along with the AFGE SocialSecurity General Committee leadership, to issue a no confidence vote inCommissioner Astrue's ability to effectively and successfully lead the agency."Since its inception, Social Security employees have delivered quality serviceto America's retired and disabled. It is tragic that their ability to performthis service has been hindered by faulty leadership," concluded Gage.AFGE is the largest federal employee union, representing 600,000 workers inthe federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.SOURCEAmerican Federation of Government EmployeesChristina Erling of American Federation of Government Employees,+1-202-639-6419.
* McDonald's, P&G rise after analyst comments Stocks | Funds News | ETFs News * Fed cuts 2009 GDP view, long-run forecast unchanged * Financials drag on profit-taking * Indexes up: Dow by 0.4 pct, S&P 0.7 pct, Nasdaq 0.8 pct For up-to-the-minute market news click [STXNEWS/US] (Updates to late afternoon) By Edward Krudy NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesdayas shares of McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) and Procter & Gamble Co(PG.N) advanced on positive broker comments, but profit-takingin financials and the Federal Reserve's cautious comments onthe economy kept gains in check. The Fed cut its 2009 forecast for gross domestic productand raised its unemployment rate outlook, tempering the recentoptimism that the economy might be turning the corner. But analysts said the Fed's revised outlook raised no newworries since the long-term forecast remained unchanged.
Still,investors snapped up shares of companies they consider betterable to withstand an uncertain economy. McDonald's, up 5.4 percent to $56.80, was the biggest boostto the Dow, after Deutsche Bank recommended a "buy" on thefast-food chain, while Procter & Gamble Co, the maker of Tidelaundry detergent and Pampers diapers, rose almost 3 percent to$54.46 after Barclays raised the stock to "overweight." "I think everybody knows the worst-case scenarios for theeconomy are less likely and that we still have yet to seegrowth and when it comes, it'll probably be moderate," saidDavid Bianco, chief U.S equity strategist at UBS in New York. "The market has gotten to where it is because people haveacknowledged those worst-case scenarios for the economy." The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 36.95 points,or 0.44 percent, to 8,511.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index.SPX gained 5.89 points, or 0.65 percent, to 914.02.