| Comment Number: | EM-017574 |
| Received: | 3/12/2005 11:04:52 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 12, 2005 DoD NSPS Comments , DoD NSPS Comments: Pay and Pay Administration "...maximum extent practicable, for fiscal years 2004 through 2008, the overall amount allocated for compensation of the DoD civilian employees who are included in the NSPS may not be less than the amount that would have been allocated for compensation..." How will an employee be able to plan for the future if his or her paycheck dips below the minimum amount required to pay his or her household bills? What happens after 2008? Performance-Based Pay "...pay raises and bonuses based upon individual performance, individual contribution, organizational performance, team performance, or a combination of those elements." Sounds good, how does one insure that we are not going back in time to the "good ol' boy" network when a bad manager was able to reward his favorites on the side without them actually being the top performers? In fact, with the pay pools, won't the money going to those favored employees be coming out of the pockets of the other, more deserving workers? Premium Pay "...DoD's authority to waive and replace premium pay provisions in 5 U.S.C. chapter 55, subchapter V (except section 5545b) in whole or in part..." Will work beyond the 40-hour workweek be performed without fair compensation? Will the term "week" come to mean something different? Staffing and Employment "...Department needs greater flexibility to attract, recruit, shape, and retain a high quality workforce. The proposed regulations...ability to streamline and accelerate the recruitment process." I was hired after answering an announcement, filling out an application, taking a test and passing a security background check. Which one of these will be omitted to streamline the hiring of new recruits? How about foreign nationals? Workforce Shaping "...proposed regulations give greater emphasis to performance in RIF retention by placing performance ahead of length of service." The 3M Corporation is currently being sued for failing to give older employees training to allow them to compete with younger employees and resulting in older (more experienced) employees losing their jobs. The National Association of Air Traffic Specialists has also filed a class action complaint against the FAA for age discrimination. NAATS claims that the FAA said a main reason to outsource was the "retirement eligible workforce" which will adversely affect almost 2,000 flight service controllers when their jobs go to Lockheed Martin employees. Many of us working in DoD have accumulated much experience and on-the-job skills that new employees have yet to learn. An inept supervisor will be able to keep his younger (and inexperienced) workers instead of the mature experienced workforce by the capricious use of appraisals, choosing who will be rewarded based not on merit and expertise, but on the whims of a poor supervisor. Despite the publics' perception, it is possible to fire a federal employee. With NSPS, it will be possible to fire the wrong employee. How might a DoD employee react if asked to move within a week or two to a new location? In the Office of Special Counsel, Scott Bloch ordered several workers to move to offices in other states or risk termination. Those who did not comply have lost their jobs and are appealing his decision. Secretary Rumsfeld has the last word on employee rights and appeals. During a recent town hall meeting with one of the Secretary's representatives, there were many blanks to be "filled in later" concerning the NSPS proposals and subsequent decisions by Secretary Rumsfeld. Although the proposed changes of NSPS are supposed to provide for a more flexible and functional DoD, these changes could have the opposite effect. Instead of recruiting the "best and the brightest", NSPS will insure that the best educated and intelligent worker will run from the Defense Department as fast as possible. Why would anybody really want to come work for the DoD if it means that pay banding and pay-for-performance will have no real oversight and that person could work here for years at the same wages as when first hired? Why work here when he or she could be forced to travel to another location even during a hardship, just to be more flexible? Why work where there will be no real appeal to unfair judgements against the employee? Why devote 75% of a lifetime, only to be told that the new guy on the job will soon become the ONLY guy on the job? Why wouldn't that person run to the open arms of a defense contractor who will still be offering benefits, reasonable work schedule with overtime, opportunity to travel by choice, and the opportunity to work alongside federal employees who will be working the same job as the contractor, but getting paid less than the contractor? NSPS is purported to help DoD workers become more flexible in these troubled times and help send workers right away to fix problems as they occur. Right now, without NSPS in place, dedicated DoD employees are doing all they can to help support the uniformed services. I have personally traveled to work at three of the four Naval Shipyards, (and some others, which are no longer navy activities). I have worked at naval bases and private shipyards in this country and in France, Italy and Japan. I have worked on a ship in Sardinia and France where there is no base. I have received a telephone call at home in the morning and boarded an airplane in Norfolk that afternoon to work on a submarine on the West Coast. Some of my co-workers have traveled to Guam, Bahrain and even to Yemen where they helped recover the USS Cole. We have workers in Texas and Kuwait right now helping to add armor to the army's vehicles. None of these workers was forced to go. In fact, if all of those who volunteered were allowed to go, work on the navy's ships here might take a little longer to complete. All of these trips to other locations on this continent and others were accomplished without the added security of the National Security Personnel System. Most of the proposals in NSPS do not seem to deal with security of any kind. Many Defense Department workers are veterans who served in a branch of the armed forces and chose to work in DoD to keep our military strong. As civil service employees, we know that we aren't going to accumulate great wealth working for the federal government. However, we derive a great deal of satisfaction doing our work to the best of our abilities and knowing that our labor is a benefit to our military. All we ask is the ability to continue our work, be paid fairly for our labor, to not be threatened with losing our job because one day we didn't have the right attitude and to not be punished for appealing an unfair decision. Sincerely,