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The lack of national direction from the Department of Veterans Affairs on issuance of pandemic premium pay has left regional VA networks and local facilities to decide which employees get additional pay for working on the front lines of the pandemic and how much. Premium pay is an umbrella term for additions to base pay, said Thomas Dargon, staff council at the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 260,000 VA employees. There isn t a national VA policy guiding its distribution during COVID-19, he said. At the St. Albans Community Living Center in Queens, N.Y., premium pay hasn t necessarily been given to all employees on the front lines working with COVID-19 patients, said Geddes Scott, the president of AFGE local 1988 in Queens, N.Y., in a press call hosted by AFGE. ....
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VA workers feel ‘shut out’ of COVID planning December 16, 2020 American Federation of Government Employees officials said that Veterans Affairs facilities have kept them out of the decision making process to address COVID-19. (John Minchillo/AP) Employees across various Department of Veterans Affairs facilities are being kept out of the loop as their leaders make plans to address COVID-19 needs and staffing challenges, American Federation of Government Employees officials said on a Dec. 16 press call. “The leadership keeps the union out of all decisions, no pre-decisional [consultation] at all. We don’t know how many masks we have; we do not know the amount of COVID [positive] employees running around,” said Regina Smith, president of AFGE Local 424 at the Baltimore VAMC. ....