| Comment Number: | EM-010805 |
| Received: | 3/3/2005 2:01:59 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:
March 3, 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. 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. 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. As a concerned worker for the Department of Defense and dedicated employee who has served the better part of his adult life serving this nations defense as a United States Marine and then a civil servant for the Air Force I am deeply disturbed at the proposed NSPS regulations. I ask the question why in this time of uncertainty, when we have troops overseas trying to grant rights to a downtrodden people, that you find it necessary to take away those very rights to our own citizens that embody the standards which we as American stand for! As a United States Marine I am apposed to sending civil servants into combat zones against their will. Deploying people who are in most cases in their later years and have already developed in cases such as my own diseases such as diabetes and other conditions which may require constant medication to keep them alive, to send these people into areas where medications may or may not be available will only hamper those people and the military mission. I also find it disturbing that I served my country and due to circumstances within that military establishment I was injured and am now a disabled veteran. Now you wish to diminish my veteran?s preference? Our veterans should not be forgotten especially now that you and this administration are creating many more through your military policies around the world. What will these men who have defended our freedom and others come home to? Although the current system has flaws, it is fairer than the cronyism that you are proposing. To establish a board solely dedicated to a beauty pageant on who is liked is not only unfair but it also does not reflect what is good for the DOD. Some people may not be the best personalities in the world but they are genuine hard workers while what you propose is a bypass of those people and giving awards to those who sit in the supervisor?s office and drink coffee and talk about the weekend sport scores. You RIF procedures are not only ludicrous but does not reflect a good mission statement. Eventually you will not be able to keep a good core value of people to accomplish the mission. We at Edwards Air Force Base run test and evaluation on prototype weapons systems. To replace People solely on their performance appraisal is not only morally wrong it is against the law. Many older people will not score as high as their younger brethren simply because they cannot perform as they could when in their twenties. This is age discrimination at its most blatant. If we were to RIF all those older personnel knowledge base, testing would crawl to a halt! It takes years to develop the caliber of individual who does testing for advanced weapons systems. To RIF that knowledge away would be disastrous for the United States Military. The proposed Bargaining restrictions and employee discipline is a farce of monstrous magnitude. If an employee has no recourse allowed to him by EVERY other citizen within the United States how can DOD say it stands for the United States? US citizens have a right to trial and appeals by unbiased, and non pre-selected hearings. Yet NSPS removes those basic constitutional rights and puts those US citizens into a ?Kangeroo Court? Not unlike many Sailors were subject to in the 1700?s where the those in power held the right to all decisions. This proposed regulations is not unlike those tales of old and making civil servants ?walk the plank? not only will make retention harder it will make hiring almost impossible. There will be no reason to take a lesser paying job when people can work for an outside company and enjoy those rights they have a citizens over coming on board only to have no more rights than the people in Baghdad had under Sadaams rule. It is my hope that some common sense shall be brought to this issue and return to the standards that have served this country well for almost 30 years. There was nothing broke with the current system. NSPS was installed into place under the lie you cannot fire civil servants. The fact is those managers who have always had the power to fire people were too lazy to follow proper procedures in the first place. What makes you think they will change under the new system? There have always been standards for removal? they are just not usually followed. I also ask the question. How is implementing prior to discussions fair bargaining? Why even bother with the charade? Also who decides that it?s Mission Essential? The vagueness of the proposed legislation is disastrous at best. De Minimis circumstances in most cases are determined by Union locals and most are seen just as that. To give a thirty day time frame for all negotiations and then implement anyways is just a scam to put the employees under the thumb of a colonial rule of management! Trying to pattern government under the same auspice of business is not only wrong but will erode that which is inherently governmental. To put foreign nationals in charge of the government by the amount of stock they own imperils the country for which I love and have served for twenty years. Sincerely,