Joint Travel Regulation Changes to Incidental Expenses

MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT (MOA)

ON

Joint Travel Regulation Changes to Incidental Expenses

 Dated 31 October 2014

1.  The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 214 and the Air Force Material Command (AFMC), hereafter referred to as the Union and Management, herby enter into this Memorandum of Agreement regarding updates to the subject regulation as it applies to bargaining unit employees covered by the Master Labor Agreement (MLA) between the parties.   

2.  The Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) outlines the per diem, travel and transportation allowances, and other allowances associated with official government travel.  Government directed the Department of Defense (DoD) to streamline the processes, simplify rules, improve compliance, and reduce the overall travel costs.  In an effort to meet these requirements, DoD implemented a change to the incidental expenses portion of the Meals and Incidental Expenses (M&IE) rate included in the per diem amount paid to travelers. The goal of this change is to meet the new cost reduction requirements introduced by Congress, while minimizing the overall impact to the government travelers.  The change reflects an increase to $5.00 per day Continental United States (CONUS) for incidental expenses.  Examples of incidental expenses covered by the new rate include CONUS laundry expenses, baggage tips and ATM fees.  This MOA implements the change to incidental expense allowance, subject to the provisions outlined below.

3.  The Authorizing Official (AO) shall approve the Actual Expense Allowance (AEA) for meals and incidental expenses under the following conditions: the entire incidental actual expense amount for the trip exceeds the total M&IE per diem amount for the entire travel period. Receipts for actual incidental expenses are required to justify the AEA for the TDY.     

4.  All remedies available under the MLA or 5 U.S.C. 71 will remain available to the parties if concerns cannot be cooperatively resolved.

For Management / Date                                  For the Union / Date

___________________________                  _____________________________

Mary Miller                                                    Tom Robinson

HQ AFMC/FMP                                             Executive Assistant

                                                                        AFGE Council 214

__________________________                  _____________________________

Collette Myers                                                 Nicholas Spychalski

Labor Relations Specialist,                             Executive Assistant

HQ AFMC/A1KL                                           AFGE Council 214