The SSA paid monetary awards totaling $145,000 to 240 employees it had disciplined for conduct reasons, the agency’s IG has said in the latest report from around the government questioning that practice.
Of those employees, 113 had been suspended and 126 had been reprimanded, while one had been demoted.
It said that under the agency’s policies, an employee must be considered to be in “good standing” to receive Exemplary Contribution or Service or Recognition of Contribution awards. That is defined as having a summary rating level of at least 3 on the 5-level scale, and not being on a performance improvement plan. All the employees met those criteria, and in some cases the agency would have been in violation of a union contract if it had denied the awards, the report said.
“Because the severity of conduct issues varies, we believe SSA should consider revising its policy on granting awards to employees who have certain conduct issues. We recognize that revising its awards policy will require that SSA work with bargaining unit representatives,” the report said, adding that management agreed.
Similar reports on the IRS have led to an ongoing legislative effort to write into law a ban on paying awards unless conduct is taken into consideration.
