| Comment Number: | EM-023257 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 9:15:02 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: To Whom It May Concern, 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. My husband has worked for DoD for 3 years (and off and on for about 5 years before that at temp positions) as a permanent employee now. It took him until then to get a position here at Fort Drum (even being a disabled veteran since 1986) because of all the politics at the installation, and now you want to put in a system that, in my opinion, could be even worse! These new proposals seem to treat the employees, who have 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? 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. There is also the aspect that if the money is not funded, then there may be little or no money for managers to work with anyway, "Making the NSPS system a joke in what is states managers can and will be able to do." Concerning schedules and overtime, the NSPS proposal could allow managers to schedule employees to work without sufficient advance notice of concerning these schedule changes. This will make it extremely difficult for working parents to care for their children. Also, whether you have a family or not, individuals need a generally fixed schedule for a well rounded social existence. 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. The deployment aspects of this regulation would allow the manager, or system, to assign Federal employees anywhere in the world, even into a war zone, with little or no notice. I am a veteran and have been proud to serve my country but I am also responsible for caring for my family and my personal obligations at home as a father and husband. I signed up for a civilian job this time, not a military structured system. America is at war and we are fighting for democracy and individual freedoms 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 feel very sad that the political system would go this far in proposing such a regulation. Granted, any system can use changes as time and society moves on, but this new format throws the horse and cart out for something that is as fluid as water. To me the regulation is nothing but a pile of political double-speak. I can't put it any plainer than that. I see way too much room in this regulation to take individual workers rights away with little or no recourse in fighting back if one is actually wronged by the system. I know managers need more freedom because I argued for it while I was in the U. S. Army. But this system under proposal is just way out in left field as my grand-parents would have said. Sincerely,