Federal Employees Union Raps VA Exec Bonuses

The American Federation of Government Employees on Monday rapped the Department of Veterans Affairs for continuing to pay "exorbitant bonuses" to managers in VA hospitals and benefits offices while medical staff struggle to meet growing demand.

"The idea that frontline employees have to stretch resources with limited staff, while executives continue to receive large bonuses is mindboggling," Alma Lee, president of AFGE's National Veterans Affairs Council, which represents 160,000 employees in the VA, said in a media release. "If the VA is serious about recruiting and retaining highly trained and capable staff, it should reinvest in frontline staff, not top level bureaucracy."

The VA did not return telephone calls on Monday afternoon from HealthLeaders Media.

AFGE said in a media release that the VA was "rightly reprimanded" by Congress two years ago when media reports exposed that it was paying bonuses to executives, despite mounting claims backlogs, reports of poor patient care and suspicious deaths in VA hospitals. "However, despite the Congressional reproach, the agency has continued to shower executives with lavish bonuses.

According to the union, these bonuses, when coupled with the already high salaries of medical and benefits executives, represent a misguided approach to compensation lacking fairness and transparency," AFGE said.

The union said that media reports from 2007 showed that the VA performance review boards, which make determinations about who receives bonuses, were stacked with the same executives who were scheduled to receive the incentive payments. These members had input on bonus recommendations involving themselves, fellow members and spouses that made questionable performance claims and neglected agency problems.

AFGE says its field members report no signs that such conflicts of interest have been corrected since that time. In fact, members report that even when frontline staff members are rewarded with bonuses, the awards are disseminated arbitrarily and with favoritism, AFGE said.

AFGE has also opposes legislation that would increase the maximum amount of nurse executive and pharmacist executive incentive pay to $100,000 and $40,000 respectively. Amendments introduced to S.252 would allow VA executive nurses who are not involved in direct patient care to receive a 400% increase in incentive pay. These amendments also move to exempt VA executive physicians and dentists from the fair pay setting process established by Congress in 2004, the union said.

Congress in 2004 enacted a system for setting physician and dentist pay that relies on a panel of peers in the same medical field to set market pay. "If the VA is serious about maintaining a secure and sustainable workforce, it should apply its rules of compensation equally," said Lee. "The newly proposed provision would exempt healthcare executives from the same balanced process and pay standards that apply to their counterparts on the frontline, who actually provide direct patient care."