Fwd: President's Newsletter
Dick Goodwin
From: Zahm, Marilyn <Marily...@ssa.gov>
Date: Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 2:29 PM
Subject: President's Newsletter
To:
April 30, 2018
PRESIDENT’S NEWSLETTER
Another Win
The AALJ has prevailed again in arbitration. Arbitrator Jill Klein dismissed two counseling memos that had been issued to a Judges for alleged misconduct during hearings, finding that the Agency had violated our contract by not providing the Judge with a copy of the complaints “as soon as possible” – a requirement under the terms of the agreement.
In addition, she dismissed a third counseling. The Agency used HALLEX I-2-3-10, which requires that hearings be held as soon as possible after a request for hearing has been filed, to claim that the Judge unnecessarily delayed the issuance of a decision by a year and a half because he held three hearings (two were supplemental) in a case. The facts, however, showed that the representative brought 59 pages of medical documentation to the hearing, which necessitated an adjournment, and that after the claimant testified at the second hearing, the Judge found that he needed additional evidence which, when obtained by subpoena, showed inconsistencies with the claimant’s testimony; another hearing was scheduled to deal with that issue. In the meantime, the Judge had been undergoing cancer treatment, which caused the postponement of the third hearing. That the Agency counseled the Judge under these circumstances is outrageous.
Finally, one counseling was upheld. The Judge used the word “lying” in his decision (this occurred prior to the change by the Agency to eliminate credibility from our lexicon). Agency policy requires that emotionally charged words not be used. Please be careful about what you say and write.
Thanks to Mary Beth O’Connor, AALJ’s Secretary, who worked with me on this arbitration.
Background Investigations
AALJ filed an unfair labor practice against the Agency for its refusal to bargain the impact and implementation of initiating background checks for all judges with more than 5 years of service. We are finding that Judges can spend up to six hours on completing the questionnaire and that obtaining fingerprints and undergoing interviews can eat up even more time, not to mention travel expenses.
If you have had to undergo this background investigation and have had it take up more than a minimal amount of time (an hour or so) or have incurred travel expenses, please contact me at once.
New Haven Arbitration
We are in the middle of our telework arbitration in New Haven. The following is some of the Agency managers’ testimony:
· The Agency does not need to conduct a study as to how long it actually takes to adjudicate a case, because it is unnecessary – they already know that issuing 500 to 700 dispositions is reasonable.
· An average of 2.6 hours to completely adjudicate a case is enough time to do so.
AALJ pointed out that the percentage of Judges who were able to issue at least 500 decisions annually fell from 61% in FY14 to 28% in FY17. And, we introduced the OIG audit report of September 2017, which found that the decrease in ALJ productivity was a result of a decrease in staff support, an increase in case file size and, in the wake of the Huntington scandal, an emphasis on quality. Moreover, the percentage of claims paid fell from 75% (in 1994) to 53.5% in FY15 and the OIG recognized that it takes longer to adjudicate claims that are denied.
Nowhere in the report does the OIG question the work ethic or dedication of the ALJ Corps.
Enforcing an unreasonable quota is unfair, unjust and demoralizing.
SSA ALJs issued almost 700,000 dispositions last year – a minor miracle given the decrease in staffing, the deplorable state of our equipment, increased legal and policy requirements and the increasingly large records we must review. The ALJ Corps should be congratulated for its dedication to public service.
FIT Enhanced Adult CDR Instructions
We have received complaints that these instruction templates, which are the only ones available for CDR cases in DGS, are not working properly. Marty Pillion, who developed them, says this is not the case but that the instructions must be “activated” by the ALJ. He says this is done by going the field that says “CDR Type,” clicking the appropriate drop down (e.g., medical cessation), and then pressing the “tab” key on the keyboard. Marty says this will populate the instructions and any relevant hearing scripts. If you have any questions about this template or any of the FIT or FIT Enhanced templates, please contact Marty.
In Solidarity,
Marilyn Zahm