| Comment Number: | EM-017604 |
| Received: | 3/11/2005 3:21:07 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:
Department of Defense Bradley Bunn Dear Department of Defense Bunn, Please consider the following comments and delay final implementation of the Proposed NSPS Regulations/RIN 3206-AK76/07 until the proper steps have been taken to effectively involve the elected representatives of Defense Department workers: 1) Overall it appears that the proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS) regulations would undermine the civil service and hurt the ability of Defense Department employees to accomplish the agency's mission. 2) Re: Subpart B Classification - Section 9901.201 to 99901.231 Individual employees would be unable to appeal to a neutral arbitrator regarding problems with the newly-classified positions or the broad range of duties under the revised categories. 3) Re: Subpart C Pay, Sections 9901.301 to 9901.373 Defense Department employees should continue to receive the same annual pay and across-the-board adjustment that other GS/FWS workers receive, while individual pay increases for performance in the regulations should include guaranteed percentages. 4) Re: Subpart D Performance Management - 9901.401 to 9901.409 To ensure fairness and accuracy, Defense Department employees should be able to appeal any performance rating to an independent grievance and arbitration process, as is currently the case. 5) Re: Subpart E Staffing and Employment - 9901.501 to 9901.516 These proposed regulations would allow the Defense Department to arbitrarily develop and administer new rules on staffing and employment that are not available for public comment. 6) Subpart F Workforce Shaping - 9901.6012 to 9901.611 The current layoof/RIF rules give balanced credit to performance and the employees' valuable years of committed service and should be retained. 7) Subpart H Appeals - Section 9901.801 to 9901.810 This would overturn over 25 years of case law, and eliminate the use of the Douglas factors which third parties use to mitigate or overturn agency-imposed penalties. Not good. 8) Subpart I Labor-Management Relations - 9901.901 to 9901.929 There is no compelling reason to take away most of the collective bargaining rights or grievance rights. 9) Finally, regarding the Defense Department's proposed "dispute board": Any dispute board must be jointly selected by management AND the union. Sincerely,