| Comment Number: | EM-001438 |
| Received: | 2/24/2005 7:30:11 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). This message will be sent to both DoD and my representatives in Congress. I have worked for DoD on active duty for 26 years and as a civil servant for 8 years. These new proposals seem to treat employees who help defend our country as the enemy. Most DoD employees work hard and are committed. I believe relying on supervisors to make the right decision is a wrong assumption. These rules would create a system in which federal managers can be influenced by favoritism. Annual Pay Raises Under the General Schedule and FWS, employee pay was clear. It was funded by Congress and could not be taken away. In the past DoD did not fund its awards program. How can employees feel confident our salaries and bonuses will be funded in the future? ?Friend of the Supervisor? Pay System With the new pay system, the amount of a worker's salary will depend almost completely on the personal judgment of their manager. There is no guarantee that even the best workers will receive a pay raise or that the pay offered will be fair. This system will create a situation in which workers are 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 can become a tool for mean abusive managers to harass employees with bad schedules or short notice. 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 have served my country for 26 years on active duty. I signed up for a civilian job and did not re-enlist in the military to be sent in harms way. Summary I urge you to force DoD to rethink this proposal. The current pay system, while not perfect, is fair. The increase for ?time in grade? the longer you are in a step tends to make employees motivated to perform to the standard of the next pay grade and seek advancement. It does not give any single individual as much power over pay raises as the new system will. My recommendation is to implement quarterly counseling, in the existing pay system, by supervisors of their employees. This will allow supervisors to document both excellent as well as poor performance. The DoD needs to determine, and put in writing, what number of back-to-back substandard counseling reports constitutes automatic firing criteria. Sincerely,