Comments:

February 16, 2005

  DoD NSPS Comments

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   DoD NSPS Comments:

  I write 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 23 years.  I am angry that these proposals seem to treat the employees who help defend our country as the enemy.  Most DoD employees work hard and are committed. I believe that mistreating the employees will hurt the agency’s mission.  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.  You are setting up many of your managers for failure right along with the workers.

  I also resent the following that I am pasting here regarding the NSPS training for our supervisors(taken from a civilian news article):

  Last year, the Department of Homeland Security hired Northrop Grumman Corp., the global defense contractor, to provide research and technical assistance for the design of the personnel system. Contract services may include providing program management support, "providing cradle-to-grave implementation support," conducting market research, educating managers on how to use the system, and developing a plan to replace more than 80 computer systems, according to a Homeland Security fact sheet. The company's contract could run as long as three years and pay Northrop Grumman as much as $175 million.

  So this is truly what this is all about -civilian companies making money off our hard work and efforts!  Hey guys we work for the taxpayers---not for profit!  That was $175 million that did not have to be spent during this current administration's bankrupting of our nation!

  So one can easily ascertain from the Annual Pay Raisesunder 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? 

  “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. 

  Is this a test that is being implemented to see how the government employees will react to their freedom pretty much taken away - with future implications for the civilians of our nation as a whole?  Having been around DOD since 1972, I see that we are a leader in changes within our nation.  For instance we had computers and direct deposit made mandatory long before the civilian sector.  Furthermore, there will be no impartial appeal system to assure that everyone is treated fairly in what you have set up (or one might rationalize that "you're actually faking it as you goalong considering no answers are ever available to the many questions being asked").

  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.

  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(which includes a 7 year old adopted son that an unwed mother didn't abort!) and my personal obligations at home.  We signed up for a civilian job.  We did not enlist in th military.  Today’s volunteer system works well-or at least that's what we're being told at the present time.  Sorry guys - but if you want a eady supply for your wars, then you need to go after the Young Republicans on all the college campuses that vote for war but won't volunteer!

  America is at war.  We are fighting for democracy abroad.  But the regulations are an attack on workers’ basic rights here in our own nation. Furthermore, NSPS will divert the attention of defense workers from the soldiers’ welfare to protecting themselves from abuse on the job.  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.