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In 2015, employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs worked over 1 million hours for unions, despite being paid for that time by taxpayers, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Worse, a full 346 employees spent 100 percent of their time working for unions.

"While veterans are dying waiting for care, there are hundreds of employees at the VA who are spending their time working for big-government unions that fight any attempt to fix the VA," Dan Caldwell, policy director at Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), said in a statement.

The GAO report cited data from fiscal year 2015 showing that "employees spent approximately 1,057,000 hours on official time for union representational activities, and according to VA officials, unions represented almost 290,000 bargaining unit employees across the agency during this time." Furthermore, "the data show that 346 employees spent 100 percent of their time on official time." "Official time" means time spent doing union work on the taxpayers' dime.

Worse, the report found that the VA "has no standardized way for facilities to record and calculate official time, which hampers its ability to accurately track the amount of official time used agency-wide." So the 1 million hours? That's a rough estimate — because the VA does not actually know how big the real number is.

The major reason for the uncertainty comes from the fact that the VA uses two different systems to measure employees' time and attendance. The new system, the Veterans Affairs Time and Attendance System (VATAS) was launched in 2013 to replace the older system, the Enhanced Time and Attendance (ETA) system. The agency expects to complete the VATAS rollout by July 2018.

As the GAO reported, "VATAS provides specific codes for timekeepers to record the various uses of official time for union representational activities, but according to VA officials, ETA lacks such codes." In other words, the 1 million hours is likely an underestimate of the time worked for unions.

Another reason for uncertainty comes from employees splitting their work time, according to the report. "For example, an employee at one selected facility served as union president 80 percent of the time and as a pharmacist for the remaining 20 percent. Managers said it is sometimes difficult to accommodate such employees' use of official time because it may detract from these employees' non-union responsibilities."

Oh, now you tell us!! Working 80 percent of the time as a union president might — just maybe — detract from an employee's work as a pharmacist. Those long wait lines don't just create themselves...

VA Scandal: 4 Quit After OK Veteran Dies With Maggots in Wound
All those horror stories about a veteran dying with maggots in his wound, about 25,000 vets being misdiagnosed with Traumatic brain Injury (TBI), about a VA dentist exposing 600 vets to HIV and Hepatitis, about veterans committing suicide after being forced to wait months for treatment — how many of them can be explained by VA employees doing union work on the taxpayers' dime?

There are various bad factors involved at the VA. The case of Sharon Helman — former head of the VA in Phoenix, Ariz., who was one of the first people fired in 2014 but who nonetheless sued to get her job back — illustrates how difficult it is to terminate bad employees in the federal bureaucracy.

Even President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), the man whose "New Deal" helped establish the modern federal bureaucracy, opposed public employee unions. "The very nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with government employee organizations," Roosevelt wrote. "The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress."

FDR warned that any negotiation with a public employee union would constitute a loss of the people's authority. But the GAO report did not just find the prevalence of these unions at the VA, but that workers even spent 1 million hours working for them, at the expense of the taxpayer.

"There are virtually no accountability mechanisms in place for these employees, in part because VA unions are so intertwined with department leadership," the CVA policy director Dan Caldwell explained. "For far too long, big-government unions have stood in the way of veterans getting quality care and helped to perpetuate the toxic culture at the VA."

Caldwell condemned "this clear waste of taxpayer dollars at the hands of American veterans, who deserve much better than this."

As of yet, the Department of Veterans Affairs has not released a press release responding to the GAO report. It has, however, published news releases on the ten women veterans whose artwork was chosen for display around the country in March, and the VA's National Cemetery Administration's ranking first in customer satisfaction among the nation's top corporations and federal agencies. Bully for them!

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/0...-worked-over-1-million-hours-for-unions/

Hmmmm. I'm a vet. My wifes a vet. My son is a Marine. I'm also a VA employee. I, as well as my peers, am paid far less than I would be in the private sector. We work hard and do as a good a job as anywhere. Sadly, much of our work is taken up with drunks and addicts. Many never even made it out of basic training. Most never deployed anywhere, much less served in combat. Much of our resources are spent on people who just abuse the system, just like Medicaid patients.

Yeah, you can find examples of bad employees anywhere. Plenty of sh*tbirds on active duty too. Does that make all the active duty bad? You can paint the VA with a broad brush, but for those who actually know something about it, you couldn't be more wrong.

You want to know what's going on at your VA? Go volunteer there. See for yourself. Maybe even go work there. Make things better instead of just bitching about it. It's not going to fix itself.

Its a conspiracy by wikipedia, Washington Times and NPR to make the VA look bad.






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Health_Administration_scandal_of_2014


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/3/va-still-plagued-by-problems-two-years-after-scand/

http://www.npr.org/2016/05/17/478215589/how-congress-and-the-va-left-many-veterans-without-a-choice


Regardless how it looks though, VA employees are still getting bonuses

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...espite-ongoing-problems-agency/92837218/

Well deserved for dealing with all those drunks and addicts.

Yeah. I'll admit it. I got a $400 bonus last year. That's more than most of my coworkers. Even with the bonus I could easily make $10,000/yr more working for any other hospital.

Go work at your local VA. Make it better. Or just keep bitching about it and hope the government does something.

From the sounds of it; I'm sure your patients would appreciate if you did.

Yeah. I don't have much sympathy for the sh*tbirds who are here to abuse the system. Unlike you though, I'm working here to take care of those who deserve it. But just keep bitching about something you have to google to get your information about. I'm sure it will do something.

Seriously though, your local VA is understaffed and in need of volunteers. Go volunteer. See for yourself what really goes on. Just like private facilities, there are good and bad. Go so what your tax dollars are really paying for. Things aren't going to get better if people don't do something. Bitching to and about the government isn't going to do anything.

Really sounds to me like you hate your job. I imagine you tell yourself all the time you are worth more money.

Whats the reason you don't pursue the cash? Is it harder work? No place to hide? No bonuses? No free military housing?

You tell yourself you are worth more, but yet try and convince yourself you do it because you care; yet you think of your patients as worthless maggots.

You are correct that the government has done nothing more than throw money at the problem. The unions appreciate it, as do employees.

I don't hate my job at all. I just don't like people who bitch about something they know nothing about. I don't like people who would rather bitch than actually go do something about it. I don't like people who are too lazy to do what they say someone else should do.

Before I worked here I worked at Landstuhl. I'm sure you'll have to google that too. I've spent over 20 years taking care of the nation's finest. Unfortunately, lots of sh*tbirds too. If you were on active duty you know how many of those people there are. If you were and don't know what I'm talking about, you are probably one of them. Yes, it does piss me off to see so many resources spent on them instead of the ones who deserve it. People who saw combat can't get an appointment and yet people who never even made it out of basic collect thousands every month, spend it on booze and drugs, and use the VA to avoid incarceration over and over.

But when it comes down to it, I'm here 12 hours a day providing care to the best and worst of society in a manner that is professional regardless of who I'm serving. What are you doing besides bitching?


You want to bitch because I got a $400 bonus for the year. That's fine. VA employees are still paid less than their private counterparts, even with that $400 bonus. Believe me, it's not all strippers and blow. As far as my worth? Who knows. As far as what I would make elsewhere? Yeah, I could make a lot more. I honestly don't care. I'm very comfortable financially and am not chasing dollars. It just rubs me the wrong way when you want to say VA employees are raking in the dough when we are actually making less than the market average. Again, if you actually worked at a VA you might know more than just what you google. Again, your local VA needs you. What's stopping you?

As far as the union, couldn't tell you one thing or another about them. Most of my peers couldn't either. All I know is there is one. I have no idea what they do or when they do it. No one from the union has ever talked to me and I've never talked to them.

Thanks for your service.

My dad goes to one in ND, I haven't heard him complain. Must be locations.

But, why do Public employees get bonuses. I never understood that.

I have no idea why we get a bonus. It is a yearly performance bonus based on an annual appraisal. Mine was $400 for the year for the highest rating. I certainly wouldn't throw $400 in the trash, but honestly, what does $400 matter on a yearly salary? It's certainly no incentive to do a better job than what I would already be doing.

As far as why the people in DC or the CEOs of the VISNs get bonuses, I suppose it's to get around salary cap limits that would inhibit hiring qualified people for those jobs. An argument can certainly be made as to whether those people are qualified and if not why they are not fired.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just issue vets a card that pays for hospital care wherever they want to go?

Many times I have seen the hardships families go through just to get a vet to a VA hospital. Hours away from home, forced to stay overnight, and sometimes extended times in high crime areas.

Being sick is hard enough without that.

They have started to do just that with plans for more on the way. It is currently called Choice and it allows patients who live a certain number of miles away or who cannot get an appointment within a certain number of days to seek care through the private network.

Personally, I think the VA should get out of the normal medicine business and concentrate on mental health/PTSD/TBI type issues and trauma related issues like burns/skin grafts and prosthetics where is actually leading the world in research and innovation.

The VA needs to be put out of business permanently...

The Veterinarian Administration.

My uncle was a veteran of WWII and Korea. For 45 years the VA classified him as an alcoholic. Finally someone really looked at him and his history and found he was self medicateing. He was Bipolar and used the alcohol to try to stop the manic phase.

Once they properly diagnosed him and put him on medication he never drank again.

Thanks for your service. Veterans Choice sounds good and looks good on paper. As it is now though, it is just another level of bureaucracy. It can work but it is very slow to get the ball rolling. Dad is enrolled in Veterans Choice and they cover his dialysis in the private sector. When any other problem arises he has 3 choices: 1) Get in line at the VA and wait, 2) get a bunch of doctors and administrators to agree you need Veterans Choice for what ails you at the time, then wait, and wait, 3) go to an outside hospital and pay 20% that he will never get back.

Logic never gets in your way does it? There are hundreds of VA facilities scattered across this country. They not only serve our veterans, they serve a vital role in our national defense. Believe it or not, active personnel get sick and beat up just like the vets. Outside care is not practical.

Logic takes a back seat in this case. The long standing FACTS have been known for some time. The VA has a disgraceful record of how it has treated our Vets.

Not only is your comment "they serve a vital role in our national defense" laughable it borders on bizarre.

The sad part is, vets die waiting for care. That is well documented.
The worse part is, those responsible cannot be fired, and they get bonuses.
Ain't unions great?

Most front line care providers, docs, nurses, PA's & NP's, are daily overwhelmed by the bureaucrats (administrators), while trying to do the best job they know how.

Actual providers do not create the rules.
Most do not belong to unions.
Most will admit that the VA is badly broken.
Most will describe the work environment as "hostile".
In spite of the rhetoric, it is getting worse.
Most retire at the earliest possible moment.

watch4bear, your "attack" is about 95% wrong and misplaced. You are responding to something you read!!!!
Kodiakisland is about 95% on target.
You are living it.
Name calling demans all of us.