Comment Number: EM-023240
Received: 3/16/2005 11:34:55 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. I have worked for DoD for many 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. Many of us worked long and hard, with pink slips from BRAC I in our hands, during Desert Shield/ Storm during the early 90s. 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. And frankly, the money it will take to implement it should be spent on OUR SOLDIERS who sit in harm's way without proper equipment. We run out of procurement dollars half way through the fiscal year because we're fighting this war on peacetime funds. When funding is cut off I as an Item Manager for the Bradley, am required to have a backorder FROM IRAQ before I can have my procurement person award a contract. That contractor may require 8 months to produce. A soldier sitting in his downed Bradley doesn't understand why he can't get the part he needs. What am I to tell him? To be spending the amount of money I'm hearing is obscene when we have soldiers needing body armor, HumVees that still require hardening. M16s running short of ammo... 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? How can you possibly expect to attract good people when everyone can see the handwriting on the wall - the funding just won't be there. The raises will not happen, and the good folks will leave. ?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. If this is fair for me, I strongly suggest Congress adapt this plan for themselves. Even the Senior Executive Service (SES) gets screwed by this. Who in the world wins?? Guess it's the contractors who will eventually take over all our jobs? 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. In my younger days I served on an emergency response force that would have responded to a nuclear or chemical accident or incident anywhere within the US. The concept of walking into hell for my country is not foreign to me. HOWEVER, I did NOT join the activ military OR the Reserves OR the Guard. I support and serve those folks, but I am older now and physically not capable of deployment to Iraq, which quite honestly, is what this is all about. We're running out of soldiers so we'll use our civilians to do a soldier's job. This is very scarey to many of us. America is at war. We are fighting for democracy abroad. But the regulations are an attack on workers? basic rights. Federal workers didn't attack and kill us on 9/11, nor are Federal Worker's employment rights in any way an infringement on national security. I mean, REALLY! Why would my fair employment rights in any way impede national security? That is absurd! Whose employment rights will be next to fall? Furthermore, NSPS will divert the attention of defense workers from the soldiers? welfare to protecting themselves from abuse on the job. You will see a mass retirement and huge brain drain should these changes be allowed to stand. I strongly 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,