NAPE member Alan Bretting works at the Nebraska Military Department. In March, Alan received his 2021 annual performance evaluation. When he saw that he received a 1.9 on his performance evaluation, he knew there must have been an error. Since the salary step increase on July 1 is based on receiving a satisfactory performance evaluation, Alan knew it was important to sort this situation out. He did the right thing and contacted our NAPE field staff right away.
After looking into the situation, the NAPE field services team worked with Alan to discover that he never received new SMART goals for 2021. This is a violation of Article 26 of the NAPE contract. Alan’s supervisor attempted to change his 2021 SMART goals in January of 2022. While performance goals can be changed, they can’t be applied retroactively. Any goal that gets changed in 2022 can’t possibly be applied for 2021, as this is also a violation of the contract.
The NAPE team promptly filed a grievance stating that since the Military Department did not follow the procedures laid out in Article 26, Alan’s performance evaluation must be rated as satisfactory. The Military Department agreed that the contract had been violated and adjusted Alan’s 2021 performance evaluation to be satisfactory, securing his July 1 step increase.
Alan made the right decision by reaching out to NAPE right away. If he had not called the NAPE office within 15 working days of receiving his evaluation, he would have given up his right to file a grievance challenging the error that had been made. If you or a coworker believe the contract has been violated, please reach out to the NAPE office right away so that we can investigate the situation.