By September 30, 2011, 75 percent of all DoD civilian employees will receive electronic Earnings and Leave Statements (eLES). According to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), currently about 539,000 civilian employees are voluntarily receiving eLES. DFAS announced that as of October 1, 2011 another 76,000 DoD employees will be required to receive eLES, in lieu of hardcopy statements.
Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Robert Hale directed the Military Services and defense agencies in August to change from paper LES to electronic statements for all “non-bargaining unit” employees. The decision to require eLES was made to save printing and mailing costs in order to move funds to higher priority needs.
DoD estimates that employees’ voluntary decisions to receive eLES are saving over $7 million a year. Requiring another 76,000 to receive eLES will save an additional $886,000 per year, the DFAS release noted.
After October 1, about 190,000 employees will still receive hardcopy LES. If these employees voluntarily shifted to eLES, DoD could save an additional $2.2 million annually, according to DFAS. Information on how to receive eLES is available on DFAS myPay.
When we were initially told about electronic LES, including the bargaining unit employees, we were told we must use it. The director went on to say, if we didn’t, “maybe a few days in the street will change people’s minds.”
I understand savings, but this was blackmail.