| Comment Number: | EM-023225 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 1:29:32 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 16, 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. During the Legislative process DoD stated that NSPS was vital to our future National Security. DoD employees are 100% committed to National Security. The ?NSPS? proposals treat the front line employees as though the employees are not committed. These ?flexibilities? take away our rights to have a real voice on working conditions and take away rules that protect basic fairness and merit. NSPS will actually create turmoil and undermine National Security readiness. The current system is a mission driven, performance based merit system that can motivate, recognize and reward excellence. Performance recognition has suffered from the fact that DoD has tight budgets and never adequately funded performance recognition. DoD has emphatically stated no additional funding will be allowed. While employees will not lose pay during conversion to NSPS, we will lose all future increases we would have received under the current system. This will affect our overall salaries and compensation for the future. NSPS includes a locality based component that may make up for some of these lost increases, but only some jobs will receive a locality increase and only if DoD?s tight budgets allow for funding. Also, the annual increase under the GS pay system was guaranteed. In the future, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will dictate how much can be spent on employee pay. The NSPS proposed rules do provide for periodic ?rate range adjustments". However, DoD says that they will adjust these rate ranges at their discretion through an undisclosed process. If DoD had conformed to OMB guidance over the last 3 years instead of the current pay process, our salary level would be about 6% less. If our salary is lower in the future under NSPS than under the current pay system, our future retirement benefit will also be less as a result. Further, the "aggregrate amount of money" for salaries and bonuses is only guaranteed through 2008. Meaning after 2008, we may lose not only increases, but also salary too. How can we expect a "pay for performance" system to work when pay increases are lost before 2008 and salary may also be lost after 2008? The Merit System Protection Board recently highlighted a report by the Corporate Leadership Council which concluded that even successful pay for performance programs had little impact on organizational performance (i.e., mission). The report indicated that successful employee engagement did improve organizational performance. Yet DoD has proposed to eliminate most collective bargaining, the core of employee engagement. 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. I will closely be following what my Congressmen do about these proposed new regulations. I will also closely be following what other Congressmen who represent family, friends and acquaintances do about these proposed regulations. This will include Congressmen in other states too. In my opinion, any Congressman in favor of these proposed new regulations does NOT deserve my support/vote or my family's support/vote in any and all future elections. Further, I will strongly encourage relatives, friends, and acquaintances of mine who are currently represented by any Congressmen who support these proposed new regulations to vote against their Congressmen in any/all future elections. 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. As an employee who has worked for Dod for years, I am very concerned about my rights in a reduction in force situation. Today, years of committed service (seniority) and performance are both taken into consideration. Under NSPS our last performance rating determines our retention standing. For example, an employee with 20 years service with 19 years of ?outstanding ratings? and the most recent appraisal of ?excellent? would be let go before a 3 year employee with 2 years of ?meets expectations? whose most recent rating was outstanding. This is not fair or right! Further, I am very concerned that NSPS makes it easier and faster to downsize, compete, and/or contract out work. Why is this being done? Is it a sign that NSPS is intended to do more downsizing, competing, and contracting out of work? 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. While DoD indicates it will now train and hold supervisors accountable for giving fair and accurate ratings, these are the same people that have supposedly been trained and held accountable for their actions for the last 30 years. Training resources are always scarce due to other priorities. While DoD may do some training, past history demonstrates that training dollars will be spent for other important things. I understand that during a recent hearing of the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia, Subcommittee Chairman George Voinovich, R-Ohio, sought more details on funding that will be allocated to training managers and supervisors in how to use the new performance pay system. A number of experts have told Congress that the success of NSPS rests on the training that is provided for the transition. Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness said, however, that training for NSPS has not been isolated as a separate line item in the fiscal 2006 budget request. Does this mean that NSPS promises training for managers that will never be funded or will be intended to be funded but have the funding spent on something else? DoD has also proposed to take away my right to insure that my rating is fair by no longer allowing me to file under a grievance/arbitration process for independent review. Instead I will have to ask for another manager to review an unfair rating! Therefore, there will be no impartial appeal system to assure that everyone is treated fairly. This will also undermine due process, fairness, merit system principles and the ability to be a whistleblower. ?Poor? managers will now be free to motivate by fear and intimidation without real accountability. Even the Merit Systems Protection Board won?t be able to change a suspension or termination it deems unreasonable. 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. I understand that 10 unions have filed suit over the proposed NSPS regulations because these regulations were developed without allowing any meaningful input from the unions. At a recent hearing of the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia, Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, said that many questions about details of NSPS will be answered during an upcoming meet and confer period. Hopefully, unions will finally be allowed the right to provide meaningful input during this meet and confer period. Some of the details being sought after include details on performance management, compensation and reductions in force. Seeing as how these details can have a great impact on me and my fellow DoD workers, I wonder if we will also be able to provide input once these details are finally released. 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,