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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2015 12:07:30 GMT -5
From the AALJ Newsletter this morning, notes from AALJ/Management meeting...
"The Agency expects to hire additional staff in FY15 and FY16. This year, 250 new ALJs will be hired, which will mean 150 new additional slots to the Corps (we experience attrition of about 100 ALJs per year).We currently have 1383 ALJs on duty in the hearing offices.
Support staff will be hired at the rate of 4.1 per each ALJ; last year, there was hiring at a higher ratio for support staff, so there are support staff available already for newly hired ALJs. The new support staff will be allocated to the Regions, where the decision will be made to either fill positions in the hearing offices, in the Regional offices or in the case assistance centers."
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Post by johnthornton on Feb 3, 2015 14:17:48 GMT -5
Gee, why do I think they will add the positions to the Regional offices? After all, you can never have enough bureaucrats to beat on the hearing offices to do more with less. Has anyone ever looked at a Regional office org chart? Amazing how many people work there without disposing of even one case.
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Post by bartleby on Feb 3, 2015 14:29:36 GMT -5
From an e-mail I just received: To address increasing wait times for a disability appeal decision, the Budget proposes to increase the hiring of Administrative Law Judges (ALJ). SSA’s workloads continue to increase as the baby boom generation enters its most disability-prone years. The average wait time for a disability deci¬sion before an ALJ reached a record high of 18.5 months in August 2008. SSA was able to reduce the wait time down to a 10-year low of 12 months in 2011 and 2012, but due to funding constraints, the wait time has begun to grow again and is anticipated to rise above 16 months in 2015. Currently there are over one million people wait¬ing for a disability appeals hearing decision from an ALJ. The Budget commits increased resources to hire more ALJs. But resources alone will not be enough. The process for hiring SSA ALJs has not operated efficiently as is needed to fill vacan¬cies even when funding is available. Therefore, the Administration is creating a workgroup led by the Administrative Conference of the United States and OPM, along with SSA, DOJ, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to re-view the process of hiring ALJs and recommend ways to eliminate roadblocks, which may include proposing administrative reforms or legislative changes. www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2016/assets/investing.pdf |
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Post by prescient on Feb 3, 2015 14:45:23 GMT -5
From an e-mail I just received: The process for hiring SSA ALJs has not operated efficiently as is needed to fill vacan¬cies even when funding is available. Therefore, the Administration is creating a workgroup led by the Administrative Conference of the United States and OPM, along with SSA, DOJ, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to re-view the process of hiring ALJs and recommend ways to eliminate roadblocks, which may include proposing administrative reforms or legislative changes. Just cut out OPM and let SSA control all aspects of hiring. Simple. |
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Post by firehouse9 on Feb 3, 2015 14:46:26 GMT -5
So does anyone think that this might mean that they open up the hiring process to new people or would they likely continue to go on the 2013 and prior register?
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Post by JudgeRatty on Feb 3, 2015 15:59:01 GMT -5
So does anyone think that this might mean that they open up the hiring process to new people or would they likely continue to go on the 2013 and prior register? This process took almost 2 years (March 2013 application to Nov 2014 first hires) to get to the point they started hiring off the new register. They have only touched on the hiring off this new register. I am sure that with all the hundreds of qualified candidates still on the register (at least 800 or so), it will take them through 2015 and into 2016. After that? Who knows. Even if they started right now, it would take over a year before new candidates would be ready. Plus, they have not processed appeals from this new register, and they would have to do that before starting over again.
The "prior" register is dead. The new one that was in place starting with the release of the March 2014 Notice of Results (March 2013 application) is the only register in effect.
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Post by JudgeRatty on Feb 3, 2015 16:06:33 GMT -5
And to add, the article discusses a proposed "workgroup" which is not indicative of actual reform, but only an evaluation to see what they might do in the future. All of that will no doubt take years. We all know reform is needed, but doing it will be tedious and will be fraught with political involvement.
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Post by sealaw90 on Feb 3, 2015 16:07:22 GMT -5
So does anyone think that this might mean that they open up the hiring process to new people or would they likely continue to go on the 2013 and prior register? Prior register? I think that's dead now. The new register is the only list available to be hired off of. Any committee established, if ever, would never impact the current register. This is pie in the sky stuff, good fodder for future hiring decisions or future registers, or future law review articles. I am not holding my breath. There are still several hundred names on the current register and ODAR is only slowed down by their ability to take people away from their ALJ duties and come to FC to interview and train new ALJs. That's just the way it is in most federal agencies, or most businesses. You don't have time to hire more folks, but if you don't take the time to hire good people, you get stuck with crap, so I think ODAR should take their time and hire the best ALJs they can. |
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