Comments:

 February 18, 2005

  DoD NSPS Comments

  DoD NSPS Comments:

I am writing to express my concerns about changes to work rules in the Department of Defense (DoD).  The proposed regulations, known as the National Security      Personnel System (NSPS), were printed in the Federal Register on February 14, 2005.  This message will be sent to both DoD and my representatives in Congress. 

I have worked for DoD for over twenty-one years.  I am VERY upset that these proposals seem to treat the employees who help defend our country as the enemy.  If we ever had an idea that the current Secretary of Defense mistrusted his own people and thought we were pretty much worthless, this confirms it.  Most DoD employees, INCLUDING ME AND MY COLLEAGUES, work hard and are committed to the DoD mission.  However,  I believe that mistreating the employees will undermine the agency’s mission.  If they were trying to find a way to lower morale, this is it.  I am very upset by NSPS.  This system will change the way workers are paid, evaluated, promoted, fired, scheduled, and treated.  These rules would create a system in which federal managers are influenced by favoritism rather than serving the civil concerns of the American people.  

PLEASE halt the rush to implement these unfair and arbitrary regulations in the DoD.  As stated above, they are a slap in the face of us committed, loyal federal    employees.  I am personally not concerned about my supervisor treating me unfairly because I have a good and fair one, but I know plenty of other workers at DFAS-Columbus who have marginal supervisors, at best.  What will happen to them if these supervisors are unleashed to treat their employee friends favorably, and to trump up disciplinary or dismissal charges against the employees they don't like?  I feel sorry for these employees because I don't believe these new supervisory 'freedoms' will bring out the best in some supervisors.  Also, these regulations don't give the employee much recourse to fight back in the case of unfair treatment.  THIS IS FRIGHTENING!!  Why are we going back to anything resembling a patronage system, when the CSRS was implemented to stop these kinds of abuses?

 Annual Pay Raises Under the General Schedule, employee pay was clear.  It was funded by Congress and could not be taken away.  However, NSPS will take away this certainty.  Salaries and bonuses are funded by DoD.  In the past – as recently as just last year – DoD did not fund its awards program.  Given the agency’s miserable record on this issue, how can employees feel confident that our salaries and bonuses will be funded in the future?  In addition, the regulations are written so vaguely that if implemented, they basically give carte blanche to the DoD to do anything they feel like.  There is also nothing written about RIF severance pay computations, so how do we even know that we will get any kind of benefits in case of a RIF?

 “Friend of the Supervisor” Pay System
With the new patronage pay system, which DoD calls “pay for performance,” the amount of a worker's salary will depend almost completely on the personal judgment of his or her manager.  This system will force workers to compete with one another for pay raises, which will destroy teamwork, increase conflict among employees and reward short-term outcomes. There is no guarantee that even the best workers will receive a pay raise or that the pay offered will be fair or competitive.  This system will create a situation in which workers are in conflict with one another and afraid to speak out about harassment, violations of the law, and workplace safety

problems.  Furthermore, there will be no impartial appeal system to assure that everyone is treated fairly.   There are provisions in place now to get rid of unproductive employees.  Granted, maybe they need some reform to reduce the amount of paperwork involved, but WHY are we not just reforming this part of the system?  WHY are we not making management do it's job in these cases, rather than have them look the other way and keep these employees because it's 'easier'??  The NSPS is basically just an attempt to let mangement do whatever they want without fear of repercussions.

 
Schedules and Overtime

NSPS will allow managers to schedule employees to work without sufficient advance notice of schedule changes.  This will make it extremely difficult for working parents to care for their children and family. It will also mean that abusive managers could harass employees with bad schedules or short notice.  Overtime rotations can be canceled, which means that employees may not be able to plan adequately for childcare and other important responsibilities.  This is absolutely rotten - what are we going to become, one big federal sweatshop??  Why do federal employees have to be treated as second-class citizens compared to the civilian workforce in

these matters?  This is another morale-buster.  Nobody in their right mind with small children, especially single parents, would want to work here with the possibility of this happening.  Not everyone can find someone to watch their kids on short notice.  Are we going to see instances where parents leave their children at home unsupervised because they're afraid not to come to work?  Again, I can see many of the supervisors at DFAS Columbus taking a hard line and using this kind of thing as a convenient way to get rid of employees they don't like.

Civilian Deployment

Federal employees could be assigned anywhere in the world, even into a war zone, with little or no notice.  I am proud to serve my country but I am also responsible for caring for my family and my personal obligations at home.  We signed up for a civilian job.  We did not enlist in the military.  Today’s volunteer system works well. 

America is at war.  We are fighting for democracy abroad.  But these regulations are an attack on workers’ basic rights.  Furthermore, NSPS will divert the attention of defense workers from the soldiers’ welfare to protecting themselves from abuse on the job.  We all work better knowing we have some modicum of job security and that we have procedures in place to protect ourselves from arbitrary treatment.  I URGE you to force DoD to rethink this proposal.  We need work rules that preserve fairness, serve the American people, and respect the rights of Defense Department workers.