Program Plan
Department of Labor - Office of Labor-Management Standards Recovery Plan
Updated 05/15/2009
Objectives
Program Purpose
Section 5333(b) of Title 49 of the U.S. Code requires that employee protections, commonly referred to as "protective arrangements" must be certified by the Department of Labor, and in place before Federal transit funds can be released. This protects the interests of affected employees. In order to satisfy the statutory requirement of employee protections and to promote the Recovery Act’s purposes, the program is committed to issuing timely employee protection certifications for these grants.
Public Benefits
Transit projects funded under the Recovery Act will benefit the public by preserving and creating jobs, contributing to cleaning our environment through “green” purchases, retrofitting existing facilities, making additional public transportation available to more people, and helping ease fiscal problems at the state and local level. The public will benefit from this program’s timely certifications of grants in that billions of dollars of Federal transit grant funds will be able to flow freely for the benefit of our economy.
Measures
The measures have been revised to enrich the performance metrics for Recovery targets. In some instances, targets will not be available until additional baseline data has been collected.
| Measure | Target/Actual |
|---|
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
|---|
[-]
Days per Certification Letter | 15/0 | - | - | - |
Measure Information
| Frequency : Monthly | | Direction : Decreasing | | Type : Efficiency | | Explanation : Days from date of receipt of grant application from FTA until certification issued by the Department. | | Unit : Days |
|
[-]
Percent of Grants Certified within 60 Days | 0/0 | - | - | - |
Measure Information
| Frequency : Monthly | | Direction : Increasing | | Type : Efficiency | | Explanation : Percent of Recovery Act Grants certified within the 60-day timeframe established by Departmental Guidelines. | | Unit : Grants Certified |
|
Schedule and Milestones
Initial Mailing - OLMS sent outreach letters to all interested parties request cooperation in ensuring the speedy certification of employee protections.
Completed: April 10, 2009
Follow-Up Mailing - OLMS sent a follow-up outreach letter offering the Department’s assistance to all interested parties.
Completed: April 24, 2009
Certify Protective Arrangements - OLMS must issue a letter certifying that the employee protective arrangements meet the requirements of the statute within 60 days of the receipt of an application for mass transit assistance from FTA. OLMS will issue certification letters within the 60 days in all cases (even if mediation and/or arbitration are required) including the additional 800-1,000 grant applications expected as a result of the Recovery Act.
Expected Completion Date: March 5, 2010
Outreach - OLMS will conduct outreach on an ongoing basis to inform interested parties of the process and obtain their cooperation. These parties included transit authorities around the country receiving Recovery Act Funds, and labor unions that represent transit employees.
Expected Completion Date: March 5, 2010
Milestones
No Data Available
Projects and Activities
Certain categories of transit funding under the Recovery Act include Section 5333(b) requirements. In addition, the Recovery Act contains limited timeframes to obligate transit funds. The Department must issue a letter certifying that the Section 13(c) arrangements meet the requirements of the statute before the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) can release funds to the various transit systems around the country. The Recovery Act will invest $8.4 billion in transportation infrastructure, facilities and equipment. OLMS expects to process an additional 800-1000 grants in FY 2009 as a result of the Recovery Act.
In addition, OLMS is conducting outreach to the transit and labor communities to request cooperation in ensuring the speedy certification of employee protections. OLMS is also briefing transit and labor communities and FTA personnel on the employee protection program with an emphasis on Recovery Act grant processing.
Recovery Act funding in the amount of $391,000 in FY 2009 and $190,000 in FY 2010 is being allocated to additional staff devoted to the following activities.
Certify Protective Arrangements - OLMS receives copies of Transit Grant Applications from FTA, reviews the applications, and sends copies of the applications to the transit operator and union(s) representing mass transit employees in the service area of the transit operator – with a recommendation for the protective arrangements to be used. After receipt of a response from the operator and union(s) or if a sufficient time has elapsed, OLMS issues a letter certifying that the protective arrangements meet the requirements of the statute and will be applied to the immediate grant. Occasionally, this process includes the mediation of disputes between the transit system and the representatives of the employees impacted by the Federal assistance. Even when this occurs, it must be completed within the required timeframes. OLMS will issue letters certifying statutorily sufficient protective arrangements, in a timely manner, with focus on the additional 800-1,000 grants expected as a result of the Recovery Act.
Train Federal Staff - Re-assign and train existing FTE to meet the increased workload and timeliness goals for the Recovery Act activities.
Outreach - OLMS will conduct outreach to request the cooperation of the transit and labor communities in ensuring that our process can be completed in a timely manner, and to assist those communities and FTA in the timely processing of their responsibilities. OLMS will send mailings requesting the cooperation of the labor and transit communities, and offering the Department’s assistance to FTA and those communities to ensure deadlines are met.
Review Process
Reports on the number of grant applications received, the timeliness for processing each grant, and average processing of all grants, will be produced on a monthly basis.
Monitoring and evaluation of those reports, with a comparison to OLMS’ goals, will be ongoing.
OLMS managers will ensure that letters certifying the protective arrangements are issued within the 60 days in all cases, even if mediation are required. Implementation of remedial measures shall be immediate, if any problems arise.
Cost and Performance Plan
Monthly reports will be generated to indicate number of grants reviewed and certified by the Department that were funded with Recovery Act funds. The reports will include average processing time for each grant, the percentage processed in a timely manner, and the number of Recovery Act grants each individual processed. These reports will be published on the Department’s website on a quarterly basis and hard copies can be made available upon request.
Energy Efficiency Spending Plans
Program Plan Award Types
No Data Available