Union Grades VA Phone Assistance “F”

In written testimony presented March 16 to the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on disability compensation and memorial affairs, a federal employees’ union accused the VA of forcing employees to limit phone queries from veterans to three minutes. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., the ranking Democrat, said the alleged time limit and the assignment of employees to answer veterans’ calls as a form of punishment are serious problems. The American Federation of Government Employees said that under VA policy a caller must spend no more than three minutes waiting for someone to answer, and then the call can last no longer than three minutes. VA official Jack McCoy denied there is a three-minute rule, but admitted that a daily performance standard requires each VA employee to answer 64 calls. (Dividing a seven-hour work day — without hourly breaks — by 64 would average 6.56 minutes per call.)