| Comment Number: | EM-001242 |
| Received: | 2/22/2005 1:09:10 PM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
February 22, 2005 DoD NSPS Comments , 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 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. Annual Pay Raises Under the General Schedule and FWS, 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. (When you have a supervisor that has only one thought process in mind and is only into himself, their will not be any chance for a fair and reasonable decision process when it comes to awards and raises, because their will no longer be any check and balance. Who is going to oversea the managers and supervisors so that the employee is is treated fairly? With the General service in place their was an avenue for consideration, you take that away and you leave us with nothing. We do not need more open hostile competition in the work force, we already have more than we need now. If moral was any lower, we would disappear. For many of us our careers are being forfeited, we do have a say in what happens to us. This should not be a political arena, we are talking about jobs and our sense of importance, you are talking about family in and outside of the workforce, like all of you, we are the bread winners, mothers, fathers, grandparents and sisters and brothers (family) and the stability that are families look to for when their is a crisis and we are definitely at a cross roads and taking our stability away is like stabbing us in the back with know place to go for support. This is not just a job to me, this is my career with over 27 years of my life held in the balance. We do not need our security removed and replaced with less, we need a more secure future and so do you and so do your families that rely on each and every one of us to do our part. Please do not forsake us with a system that is going to fail.) 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. (everyone has the right to be heard and listened to. If you take our writes away from us to have adequate counsel by letting our supervisors and managers have the last word when the problems are at their level we all will be doomed. The employee needs to have their rights left in tack, or job security is going to be minimized while this system at best will cut every corner imaginable to make us fail.) 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. (WE will be left without our constitutional rights, not acceptable.) 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 the 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. 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. (We are protected by the constitution or we should be, deployment with out thought will resort to anarchy.) Sincerely,