| Comment Number: | EM-023068 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 8:31:05 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 15, 2005 DoD NSPS Comments , DoD NSPS Comments: DoD has released material it has called NSPS: Myths and Facts. It is an insulting piece of half-truths, provocations, and lies. DoD is sugar-coating the NSPS, arguing against straw men, and insulting those who believe it is harmful to the DoD mission. This arrogance and duplicity is a foreshadowing of future treatment of civilian employees by DoD management. MYTH NSPS does nothing to help with national security DOD STATED FACT Not true. The mission of DoD is national security, and civilians play a vital role in supporting that mission. NSPS provides the Department the tools necessary to recruit, retain and manage the civilian workforce to accomplish our critical mission in a more effective and efficient manner. NSPS will also provide flexibilities so we can reduce our reliance on the military to perform jobs that civilians can and should perform, freeing up the military to perform its war fighting duties. NSPS is a mission-driven, performance-based system that motivates, recognizes and rewards excellence, which will result in an overall improvement to mission effectiveness and enhanced national security. This is critical in the global war on terrorism. That is a provocation, it says to me that: Anyone who opposes NSPS is soft on terrorism and his patriotism is to be questioned. Civilian employees are critical to fighting terrorists who have killed people within the homeland and unions and employees who seek fair workplace rules are getting in the way of DoD doing it's job. The country is at war and anyone who opposes DoD management policy may be a traitor. MYTH Under NSPS, DoD civilians can be assigned anywhere in the world, even to a war zone, with little or no notice. DOD STATED FACT Currently DoD has the authority to reassign employees, including reassignment to overseas locations, when necessary to support the mission. We do this under today?s system. This authority is unaffected by NSPS. One of the goals of NSPS is to reduce its reliance on military to perform jobs that could be performed by civilians. That is a half-truth, it says that: There are not enough volunteers to work oversees and disciplinary action is necessary to convince recalcitrant civilian employees to work oversees even if they don't want to. It is too burdensome to follow workplace rules negotiated by the employees' union representative when assigning civilians overseas. It has become necessary to treat civilian employees in the same shoddy manner as Nation Guard and Reserve soldiers. MYTH I will lose my benefits under NSPS DOD STATED FACT NSPS will not affect rules governing retirement benefits or eligibility, health and life insurance, leave, attendance, and other similar benefits. That is a half-truth, it ignores collective bargaining as an important benefit: Representation by a union is a benefit that civilian employees do not need. It is not as important as retirement and insurance benefits. MYTH NSPS eliminates veterans? preference for reduction in force (RIF) and hiring. DOD STATED FACT NSPS preserves veterans? preference. DoD is committed to the principles of veterans? preference; under NSPS veterans continue to receive preference for both hiring and RIF. That is a lie. How could anyone write this without complete disrespect to veterans? Plain reading of the regulation shows that veterans will be listed separately for a RIF as before, but there is much greater latitude for a manager to bypass veterans. MYTH Seniority and veterans? preference will no longer count in the event of a reduction in force (RIF). DOD STATED FACT Not true. Veterans? preference eligibles are still retained over employees without veterans? preference in RIF. Also, seniority continues to be a factor in RIF. However, because NSPS is a performance based system, the proposed regulations give greater weight to performance in RIF retention by placing performance ahead of length of service. Employees competing for retention under RIF who have the same performance ratings will be retained based on length of service. That is a half-truth. Was this written by a civil servant? It must have been written by a PR firm!: Of course they still count. They count less. Unfairly so. Without prior collective bargaining. MYTH I will lose my job security and there will be layoffs DOD STATED FACT No jobs will be eliminated because of NSPS. In fact, under NSPS, there may be more opportunities for civilians as military positions are converted to civilian. By easing the administrative burden routinely required by the current system, managers will turn to civilians first when assigning vital tasks. That is a half-truth. The purpose of NSPS is to make employment less secure. Management by intimidation is an important tool that is enabled by NSPS along with the elimination of very important union organization rights. MYTH I will lose pay under NSPS and I won?t get credit for time I?ve already spent waiting for my next within grade increase. DOD STATED FACT Employees will not lose pay upon conversion to NSPS. Employees will be converted into NSPS at their current salary. In many cases, employees will receive a salary increase equal to the amount they have earned towards their next within grade increase (this is known as the WGI buy-in). That is a lie. Certainty in pay increases, except for egregious infractions, is an important element of the current pay system. Introduction of uncertainty in duties and performance standards is the whole point of NSPS. The purported incentives of the NSPS are meaningless in the absence of the insulting threats that imply that DoD civilians are lazy, unmotivated, and in opposition to the DoD accomplishing its mission. MYTH There will be no locality pay under NSPS. DOD STATED FACT The proposed NSPS pay system includes a locality-based component of pay called ?local market supplement? that is paid in addition to an employee?s basic pay. The local market supplement will be based on market conditions related to geographical and occupational factors, and may differ from one occupation to another in a given locality area. Employees will be entitled to increases to the local market supplement, unless they are performing at an unacceptable level. That is a half-truth. Of course there will be locality pay the first year of two after implementation of NSPS. The rules will be much more arbitrary and more sensitive to budget pressures in upcoming years. Money for soldier recruitment bonus will be a huge budget squeeze that will lead to the elimination of locality pay or transfer of locality pay to the "bonus pool". MYTH NSPS is just a way to freeze the pay of DoD civilians, since we?re no longer entitled to the automatic January pay increase or within grade increase. DOD STATED FACT The annual January pay increase, as we know it now, will change. The proposed pay rules provide for periodic ?rate range? adjustments, to adjust the minimum and/or maximum rate of a pay band. When a minimum rate of pay band is adjusted upward, employees will receive an equivalent increase. There are no ?steps? similar to the GS system. Instead, pay increases and/or performance bonuses are based primarily on your performance rating. Unacceptable performers are no eligible for pay increases under the proposed system. That is a provocation: This comment implies that only lazy, unproductive employees are complaining about the change in pay rules. No, these people aren't even bothering to make comments. The people who are are those who believe that NSPS is the wrong solution to the problem of too few soldiers and inconvenient workplace rules about transferring employees, and managers unwilling to negotiate workplace rule changes. MYTH Under NSPS, funds for salaries and bonuses will no longer be certain. DOD STATED FACT DoD is committed to ensuring civilian compensation is protected. In fact, the law requires that the aggregate amount of money allocated for civilian compensation for organizations under NSPS cannot be less than the amount that would have been allocated under the existing system. Under NSPS, the overall amount of money that would have been used for the annual January pay adjustment, within grade increases, quality step increases and similar payments will be used for civilian pay, and those funds will be protected. However, the proposed NSPS pay system will distribute those funds based primarily on performance. That is a half-truth. Aggregate pay increase will still be authorized by Congress. These amounts can and will be directed to patronage jobs and jobs for family members of big shots that are too stupid to set up consulting firms to get contract awards. Sorry, I'm upset. Strike that. MYTH My supervisor will not be prepared and equipped to fairly and objectively rate my performance, and will not be held accountable for exercising his responsibility under NSPS. DOD STATED FACT Supervisors and managers will have an important role in determining performance-based pay increases. The flexibilities proposed in the NSPS regulations bring with them an increased need for accountability. This includes employee accountability for performance as well as supervisory and managerial accountability for the proper exercise of the authorities of NSPS. Extensive training will be given to supervisors and managers, both military and civilian. Training will focus on improving skills needed for effective performance management: setting clear expectations; communicating with employees; and linking individual expectations to the goals and objectives of the organization. Supervisors and managers will be held accountable for how effectively they use the tools provided by NSPS. They will also be subject to the pay and performance provisions of the system, and their pay will be affected by how well they perform their duties as supervisors and managers. That is a lie. The fear and intimidation used against first line manages will be ferocious. Under this pressure they will make egregious mistakes. Some will be denied pay increases for these mistakes, others will get large increases in pay because their mistakes are the intended action of the idiots they report to. Sorry, again. Let me restate: I respectfully disagree with the dismissal of this concern. It is an important one. I recommend that the appropriate control is negotiation with unions prior to the implementation of new workplace rules. LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS MYTH Unions have had no involvement in developing NSPS DOD STATED FACT The proposed NSPS regulations are the product of a broad-based, collaborative effort across the Department that began in 2004. This includes a number of meetings with employee representatives involving extensive and fruitful discussions on the potential options for the design of the system. In several areas, the proposed regulations reflect the interests and concerns voiced during those consultation sessions. We also held numerous focus groups and town hall meetings, many of which included local union involvement, to gather input and feedback on the system design. Now that we have published our proposed regulations, the next step in this process is to gather comments and recommendations on the proposed regulations, and engage in more discussion and dialogue with employee representatives as called for in the law authorizing NSPS. That is a lie There is no way the NSPS would be proposed in the form it has unless the unions had no meaningful input. MYTH NSPS will do away with bargaining units and employee unions. DOD STATED FACT Not true. The implementation of the NSPS labor relations system will not eliminate unions or bargaining units. Employees will still be able to be represented by labor organizations and to bargain collectively. The proposed rules enable the Department to act expeditiously in carrying out its mission by limiting the situations that are subject to bargaining and speeding up the bargaining process. That is a lie. Plain reading of the proposed rule clearly castrates the unions. What is left is a shell, not a union. Only a fool would accept the above statement as a meaningful truth. A technical truth, an attorney's truth, a misleading truth: all of these are synonyms for a lie. This lie is a foreshadowing of the management errors and myths that NSPS is based on and that will destroy the civilian DoD workforce as an effective element of the DoD. MYTH Employees will lose their fundamental rights to grieve or appeal unfair decisions or adverse actions. DOD STATED FACT NSPS does not change critical employee rights such as merit systems principles, due process, whistleblower protections, and protection against discrimination and personnel practices. There will continue to be avenues for employees to seek redress. For bargaining unit employees, negotiated grievance procedures will remain part of the process and other employees will continue to have access to administrative grievance procedures, as well as formal appeals processes for adverse actions. That is a half-truth. A plain reading of the proposed rule shows clearly weaken employees appeal rights. MYTH Under NSPS, there is no process for employees to challenge their performance rating. DOD STATED FACT DOD is developing a process that will allow employees to request reconsideration of their rating to a higher authority. This process will apply to all employees under the NSPS. Under current law, employees in the same organization are often subject to different procedures and avenues when challenging performance ratings. This sometimes results in inconsistent decisions. Because of the importance of the performance rating process and its impact on pay, DOD will ensure that every employee has the same opportunity to see appropriate redress. That is an amazingly cynical, blatantly misleading half-truth. Employees can always complain at the water-cooler about their performance ratings! What's the big deal? Why isn't the last phrase, "DoD, by negotiating with local and national unions, will ensure that every employee has access to redress?" MYTH Under NSPS, there is no due process for employees affected by an adverse action. DOD STATED FACT Not true. The proposed regulations preserve due process rights for employees who are subject to an adverse action (e.g., removal, suspension or more than 14 days, reduction in pay or pay band level). In all such cases, employees continue to have the right to notice of proposed action, the right to reply, the right to representation, and the right to appeal that action. The rule changes proposed in the regulations seek to streamline this process so that workplace issues are resolved quickly, while ensuring due process, recognizing the need for workplace accountability, and providing efficient tools for dealing with performance and conduct issues. This is a half-truth. Of course there is due process. However, the bulk of the current rules will be eliminated. Most of these rules are in place because of prior mismanagement and abuses. These will return, crippling the effectiveness of the civilian workforce. The system proposed in unfair and has not been subjected to collective bargaining. MYTH The proposed appeal system is not an impartial process. DOD STATED FACT Under NSPS, employees retain the right to appeal to a third party in adverse action cases. The proposed regulations retain Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) administrative judges as the initial adjudicators of employee appeals of adverse actions. Although the proposed regulations provide for Departmental review of those initial administrative judge decisions, employees retain the right to appeal to the full MSPB to review a final Department decision. This is a half-truth. The changes in the rules give management much more power and weakens the courts and established, responsible oversight boards. ...and this has not been subject to prior collective bargaining. Sincerely,