| Comment Number: | EM-001437 |
| Received: | 2/24/2005 9:42:26 AM |
| 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 24, 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 26 years. I have flow as aircrew in Vietnam and Desert Storm. I am now a civilian employee retired from the military who has been there and seen it, done it and returned. 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. 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. 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 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. For veterans many got out because we were tired of being "shipped out" on short notice, with indefinite return dates and still expected to maintain family obligations. The strain put on the family left behind is extreme and unfair. For a civilian worker it is even worse. America is at war. We are fighting to install democracy abroad while at the same time those same rights are being abrogated at home by DoD edict. The regulations are an attack on workers? basic rights. Furthermore, NSPS (much as DoD hopes otherwise) 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. The DoD says it will attract the "best and brightest" to work for them. I do not think those who are the best and brightest will be comfrotable working in the repressive atmosphere that DoD is creating. Those best and brightest are capable of reading and understanding what the changes will do to their lives and that regardless of how outstanding their work might be they can (and will ) be limited in the size of bonuses, raises and promotions they can achieve. Is this how one attracts the best and brightest? The promotion sytem as it exists is the result of years of review and "fine tuning" to create a fair and equatable system that does allow for the best to advance. What it has done has taken, as much as possible, the "good old boy "syndrome out of the equation. The proposed system puts it all back in. Retreating to the 19th century way of working is not advancing into the 21st. There does not sem to be any control of the management side of the house. How supervisors are picked, promoted, assigned or allowed to exercise control seems to be lacking. This is a real boom for management at the workers expense. In short this is not a good plan. It is short sighted, vindictive, repressive and just plain mean. Sincerely,