| Comment Number: | EM-019753 |
| Received: | 3/9/2005 7:31:08 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 9, 2005 DoD NSPS Comments , DoD NSPS Comments: My name is John P Santry and I am the President of AFGE Local 1764 at Travis AFB, CA. 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. I am a veteran and I have worked for DoD for 28 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. It was not the DOD workers who created the $1000 toilet seat or the $800 coffee pot but it was the worker who reported it. Do you think any employee will ever blow the whistle on waste or problems in his work place if his boss can remove him without appeal and his boss holds his paycheck in his hands?You can forget about it! Team work is what sets us apart in DOD. We work together as a team to acomplish our mission. The team allows everyone to help each other so that the teams accomplishments are greater than any single person's accomplishments. This will change under NSPS. Since we will now compete for the boss's favor and the elusive pay raise. We now have an interesty to see our co-workers fail or at least fall behind. I then will look better because they will look worse. People who have been around along time will not share that knowlege with his younger co-workers because it will take a long time to look up the repairs in the work manuals. In the mean time older workers will have a few more projects done and boast to the boss how fast they are and how slow the young co-worker is. I think the legacy of NSPS will be low morale and possible violance in the work place as people are forced to compete for the bosses favor. You know how people talk about climbing the corporate ladder, well I think the team work that made the DOD mission so special will be lost in the fight for the individual glory. I think the legacy of NSPS will be that the DOD mission will suffer and our nation will be less safe. I don't think we can allow that when terrorists aboard mean us all harm. We have to have the most efficient DOD we ever had not the worst. 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. Sincerely,