FPE/AFT task force examines technology from the employees' perspective

Volumes have been written about how state, local and federal government can--and should--utilize technology to better serve constituents. But within such how-to volumes, little is written about work force preparedness, such as training, much less the privacy, security and health issues that technology raises in the workplace.

The lack of dialogue among the "experts" about the impact technology has on employees prompted the FPE/AFT program and policy council to establish the Digital Government Task Force. The task force is charged with studying and evaluating the workplace policies that employees need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively in the digital age.

"Technology allows government, at all levels, to be closer to its constituents, improve the connections between citizens and political leaders and improve the access and effectiveness of government services," says FPE/AFT department director Steve Porter. "It can also improve connections between employees and the mission of their agencies. It can improve career development for public employees. But doing it right and involving public employees in its implementation is the key to success."

In effect, the task force will be rounding out the how-to volumes with recommendations on what employees need to make government investment in technology meaningful. The task force will release its report, including recommendations, at the AFT convention in July.
 

The Challenges

"It is a critical role that we are taking," says Harry Banks of the FPE/AFT-affiliated Alaska Public Employees Association (APEA), who is a member of the task force. Banks, a programmer-analyst for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, says the task force's objective is to "identify the critical issues union leadership will need to provide answers and solutions" to the challenges employees face.

"Quality of service is a major factor," Banks notes. "That is the name of the game. That is what everybody is out here hustling for. If [the union] keeps that as its central theme, that translates into our best chance of realizing our recommendations--and being effective."

The FPE/AFT Digital Government Task Force is focusing its report on four areas:

• work force training;
• employee privacy and security ;
• health and safety in the digital age; and
• telework and other workload issues.

"The task force is going to cover ground that has never been covered before--the impact of digital technology on the modern work force," says Anthony Dembek of the FPE/AFT-affiliated Administrative & Residual Employees Union (A&R) in Connecticut, who is also a member of the task force. "Basically, the work force has never had this quantified before. The impact has just been felt, and that is it."

Dembek, a survival crisis management planner at the Connecticut Office of Emergency Management, says the task force is attempting "to find out the human toll that technology has been taking" and "assess and account for that toll."

"Obviously, computers aren't going away," says task force member Gerry Nies of the FPE/AFT-affiliated North Dakota Public Employees Association (NDPEA). "We need to make sure that all of our members can use the technology on their jobs--and we need to let people know some of the concerns when using technology."
 

Work Force Training

The FPE/AFT Digital Government Task Force is examining how technology is changing the nature of work at every level. While the concept of e-government focuses on how state, local and federal governments can be more accessible to citizens by providing a range of services and information through the Internet, the fact remains that online government is and will continue to be just one component of public service. There is a work force behind e-government, and technology is changing the ways in which employees--at all levels and in all jobs--do their work.

"Training is always a bugaboo," says Banks. "From my point of view as working in an information technology shop, the training issue hits the double whammy. First, we need training for our users, and, as an IT worker, you always feel that you are in desperate need of training to keep up."

As many longtime public employees know, training has always been "a bugaboo"--an afterthought, a low priority, often one of the first line items cut when budgets are tight.

The lack of money to pay for training is not the only issue the task force is examining, however. The group also is looking at how the lack of training impairs the ability of workers to meet job expectations, which raises disciplinary and promotional issues, as well as the potential for additional work for those who have been trained or who have enhanced computer skills.

"Nowadays, people walking into the job are at least familiar with computer skills," says Dembek. "Five, six years ago, when we started in this office, there was a zero skills base. If somebody goes to a class, they become the de facto expert--they become the teacher for everyone else."

Education and training of the work force must be discussed at the time the business case is being made, says Donna Canestraro of the Center for Technology in Government, in Albany, N.Y., who discussed the impact of technology on employees with the task force during its January 2002 meeting. "If training is simply an add on, the IT system will fail."

The task force also identified the need for employers to relate how new technology--software--will be integrated into jobs. "It used to be that you had to type at x words per minute," says Nies, who works in the University of North Dakota's disability support services department providing adaptive technology to students, faculty and staff. "Today, you have to know three or four programs. Where I work, everybody depends on e-mail. You have to be able to function comfortably with that. One of the keys that we, as a union, need to look at is how do we get our members trained--comfortable with what is out there--realizing that what is here today is going to be different tomorrow."
 

Privacy and Security

The FPE/AFT Digital Government Task Force is tackling employee security and privacy issues with a two-pronged approach: Issues raised by employee use of technology on the job and how employers use technology and personal information, such as Social Security numbers, to monitor and track employees.

Many task force members agree that until formal policies are written, government equipment should not be used for personal business or recreation.

"The joke is, don't send anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the paper," says task force member Jill Hynum of the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council (WPEC).

"My job is to keep records whole, to maintain them for as many years as they need to be maintained," says Dembek. "I have electronic records--files, maps, e-mail--that we have copied to the server, backed up on tape. Mixed in with that, 'Susie' is sitting at the desk and decides to write an e-mail to her boyfriend. That is in there. If it is on this machine, it is considered public record."

Likewise, the group concurs that employers must notify employees when monitoring occurs. "We want to see security balanced with protection and privacy rights," says Hynum, an information services development services specialist.

Specifically, the task force is examining Internet and e-mail policies and employee responsibility for the security of their networks.
 

Health and Safety

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), often linked to repetitive motions introduced by computers, are the most widespread occupational health hazard facing the American work force. Experts agree that the science of ergonomics--fitting the job to the worker--is the only way to curb these injuries, which cost public and private sector employers an estimated $50 billion annually from lost productivity and Workers' Compensation expenses.

While the solution sounds easy enough, ergonomics is a highly politicized issue. For a decade, the AFT and other AFL-CIO-affiliated unions sought a nationwide ergonomics standard as a precautionary and necessary step to protecting millions of American workers. Labor's efforts culminated in November 2000 when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an ergonomic standard addressing on-the-job injuries. But the standard was short lived. In March 2001, the then Republican-led House and Senate rescinded the regulation with the blessing of the Bush administration.

In the absence of a national standard, the FPE/AFT Digital Government Task Force knows that promotion of ergonomic standards in the workplace is central to addressing health and safety problems introduced by technology. The vehicle most likely to advance these interests and remove health and safety issues from the political process, the task force emphasizes, is joint labor-management health and safety committees.

In addition to MSDs, sick buildings, often characterized by poor indoor air quality, are another aspect of health and safety that needs to be addressed.

Dembek, who works at the Armory in Hartford, knows well the effects of poor air quality. "We don't have enough fresh air in here," he says. "When they built additions, they did not build fresh air intakes. One person gets a cold, and it is going everywhere. Add a copier that is throwing out toner dust, a printer with vapor coming across the print head," and the problem is compounded.
 

Telework and Workload Issues

Over the past decade, a number of governments, including the federal government and the Arizona and Washington state governments, have successfully implemented telework policies allowing employees to work from home or satellite offices. Despite its success, telework continues to be a misunderstood concept by politicians and a disliked work arrangement by hands-on managers. But telework is a trend the task force wants to see expanded and formalized in the states where the FPE/AFT represents workers. The task force wants telework to be a workplace policy rather than a subjective perk.

To that end, the task force is examining both the upside and downside of telework, with an eye toward guaranteeing employees their rights, ensuring promotion opportunities, as well as making sure employers provide the necessary equipment and support.