| Comment Number: | EM-023242 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 7:23:42 AM |
| 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 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. 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. I have always been very patriotic, because that is what I felt, but I now feel that rumsfield has a gun to my head, and if don't obey his rules, he will pull the trigger. So how patriotic do you think I feel now? I do not understand how civilians' pay that was governed by congress, can now be changed by someone other than congress? Where and when was the study done (with metrics to back it up) that this new system will be beneficial to the company (United States) or the the employees (Department of Defense civilians). OPM was the example that the United States gave as to how employers should handle it's workers. Without OPM, private companies will have nothing to strive to be like. With this new system, everyone will be filing law suites for fairness, because this new system is not fair to anyone except rumsfield. He has made himself king, with his desires being the law with no recource. I can not believe that congress and the president could let us be ruled by a king. What happened to our democracy? This is not the right thing to do. DoD employees have always volunteered for missions to support our country, why take away this right to volunteer? We certainly did not sign contracts to defend our country like everyone in the armed forces did, so why should our conditions of employment demand that we serve in war zones. Not everyone is capable of serving in this capacity, but will now be required to or be fired and made to look like a deserter. What happened to all the reserveist? Isn't that the purpose of reservists? Please, please, please, consider blocking this new legislation, and do the right thing. How would congress react if rumsfield decided that congress did not determine it's pay, but he did, and anyone that voted against him would not get a raise or bonuses, or would be released from their term without recource? Or if rumsfield decided that congress did not deserve their retirement and did away with it, in the name of national defense. Where do you think he will stop? Sincerely,