Comment Number: EM-010809
Received: 3/4/2005 2:39:40 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:

March 4, 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. The NSPS is a very bad policy that will turn us into a regime not unlike the csar's where the so-called leaders get all the benefits while the rest of the workers get few if any leftovers. Its bad enough that the government is run by people that can't do thier employees work themselves but create their own positions with increases without this blatant example of showing the workers their ass. With 18 years in government service I've seen promotion after promotion given to the people who are in the cocaine crowd while very deserving personnel get not only passed over, but are not even considered for promotion. subpart C Pay Only a horses ass would even consider not paying across the board adjustments as any and all other government workers. While on paper it sounds right to pay increases based on performance, in real life the performance evals will go to the "old boy" network and the career boot-lickers. Subpart D Performance Management To have some semblence of fairness, employees should have an independant grievance and arbitration process to appeal to should the need arise. Unless of course, its DoD's plan to force the working class into the streets with pick handles and baseball bats as our forefathers did a century ago. Subpart F Workforce Shaping The present layoff and RIF rules have been working as well as any government program so why change them. After reading DoD's new NSPS agenda its very obvious that any new policy on their part would make Herr Hitler very proud were he here in America today. Subpart G Adverse Actions An independent reviewing body for adverse actions should be left as is, since they have been approved by the courts. Or is it NSPS's plan to run our government after the way Stalin ran the Soviet Union. Which , by the way, has proven itself not to work. Subpart I Management Relations Just what kind of NAZI thinking would even consider not allowing American citizen's the right to collective bargaining through the labor management laws, not to mention fair grievance rights. Summary As a Christian, I try to follow Jesus' commands to us all but its very evident that the people making policies in our once great nation not only don't follow God's word, they don't even believe He exists. That makes it very hard for me to follow Jesus' command to pray for our leaders. The only answer I can come up with is that God sometimes uses evil to bring about good. May God have mercy on our poor nation. Sincerely,