| Comment Number: | OL-10500473 |
| Received: | 2/17/2005 11:26:59 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:
Following are some of my comments on identified sections of the Federal Register publication regarding implementation of NSPS. Subpart C – Pay and Pay Administration DoD is introducing a new concept it calls “National security compensation comparability.” DoD says that it will try to ensure that, for fiscal years 2004 through 2008, the overall amount allocated for compensation of NSPS employees will not be less than the amount they would have had if they had not been converted to the NSPS. After that, DoD says it will provide a formula for calculating the overall amount to be allocated for fiscal years beyond FY 2008. The formula is supposed to ensure that employees are not disadvantaged in terms of the overall amount of pay available as a result of conversion to NSPS, while giving DoD flexibility to accommodate changes in the organization that might impact pay levels. In other words, DoD gives itself the right to lower overall payroll amounts to less than other federal agencies. DoD is speaking only of “overall” amounts of pay – it is making no promise to try to ensure that any individual employee is not disadvantaged because of conversion to NSPS. Setting and adjusting rate ranges – Under NSPS, employees will be assigned to broad career groups. DoD uses the “Engineering and Scientific Career Group” as an example. Within that career group, employees will be assigned to pay schedules, for example, “Technical Support Pay Schedule.” Within the pay schedule will be bands, such as Entry or Full Performance. DoD will decide the ranges of basic pay for the pay bands, i.e., the minimum and maximum pay amounts in the band. In determining the rate ranges, DoD may consider mission requirements, labor market conditions, availability of funds, pay adjustments received by employees of other Federal agencies, and other factors. DoD will adjust the rate ranges as it believes necessary and it may raise the maximum and minimum rates by different amounts. All employees rated “Acceptable” or better will get a pay increase equal to the percent the minimum rate was increased. This would be instead of the annual increase GS employees receive. If the minimum rate does not increase, there is no general increase for employees in that band. DoD may decide to increase the minimum rate in the Engineering and Scientific Professional Pay Schedule Band 2 by 5%, but only raise the Technical Support Band 2 by 2%, based on whatever factors DoD decides to apply. Professional scientists would get a 5% increase while Technicians would only get 2%. Federal employees under the GS system might be getting 3.5% that year, but DoD will not have to give that amount to NSPS employees. DoD could raise the maximum rate of both bands by 5%, but that would not affect the general pay increases. Employees rated below “acceptable” will not receive a pay increase. Local market supplements – For each band, DoD may establish local market supplements that apply to employees whose official duty station is located in the given area. There may be different local market supplements for different career groups or for different occupations and pay bands within the same career group. Locality pay would no longer be given equally to all employees in the same local area. Instead, DoD will decide which jobs should be paid more and which jobs it believes are already being paid higher than similar jobs in the same local labor market. These supplements would be reviewed by DoD at least annually and may be adjusted up or down. All employees rated acceptable or better, to whom the supplement applies, will receive any pay increase that might result from that adjustment. Local market supplements will be considered basic pay for most purposes. Employees with an unacceptable rating will not receive a pay increase. Performance payouts –The NSPS pay system will be a pay-for-performance system, based upon individual performance, individual contribution, organizational performance, or a combination. NSPS will use pay pools to manage, control, and distribute performance-based pay increases and bonuses. DoD will decide which parts of the organization and which jobs will be combined into each pay pool. DoD will also decide what percentage of payroll will go into each pay pool. Money for performance-based pay will come out of the existing payroll costs for such things as within-grade increases, quality step increases, promotions, etc. DoD is not putting more money into the system so performance pay will not be over and above current payrolls. Some employees can get more than under the GS system but only if some of their fellow employees get less. The regulations provide little detail. DoD says that the performance payout will depend on the amount of money in the performance pay pool and the number of shares assigned to individual employees. At DoD’s discretion, some pay pools might have proportionally less money than others, leaving smaller amounts for even the top performers. Employees will receive performance appraisal ratings as they do now. Under NSPS, that rating will not translate into an automatic number of shares, such as a level 4 rating equals 3 shares. Instead NSPS would allow the supervisor to decide how many performance shares to give. As an example, DoD says that a level 5 rating might allow 6 to 8 shares, a level 4 rating might get 4 to 5 shares, etc. This means a supervisor could give one excellent employee 4 shares and give another excellent employee with the same rating 5 shares. The second employee will get a bigger pay increase than the first based solely on that supervisor’s decision DoD says it will figure out how to determine how much a performance share is worth. An individual employee’s performance payout will be determined by multiplying the share value by the number of shares the employee got. Remember that pay pools contain fixed amounts of money – usually, the more shares given out, the smaller the value of each share. DoD may also provide for control points within a band that limit increases in the rate of basic pay. These are like invisible barriers that keep most employees from ever reaching the top of their band. DoD could require employees to have two years of outstanding ratings, for example, to go above a control point in their band. An increase in basic pay may not cause the rate to exceed the maximum rate or applicable control point. An increase that would raise an employee above the maximum rate of the band or above the control point could get some or all of the increase as a bonus, not added to basic pay. Under NSPS, there will be pay pool managers and panels, charged with the overall responsibility for the ratings and distribution of the payouts in a given pay pool. Based on experience with existing personnel demonstration projects that use pay pools, the pay pool manager and panel are additional layers between your supervisor and your actual payout. Your supervisor could tell you all year long that you are doing a terrific job and can expect a meaningful increase. The pay pool manager might decide, however, that it makes more sense to give a bigger amount of the finite money in the pool to another employee or another part of the organization. You might get a smaller amount than you expected, or you might get a bonus payout rather than an increase in your basic pay. In addition to the performance shares, managers may give some employees an “Extraordinary Pay Increase (EPI).” This increase may not place the employee above the maximum rate of his or her band. But remember, the maximum rate can increase more than the minimum and a raise in the maximum rate does not require increasing the pay of employees in that band. Raising the maximum rate could allow management officials to increase the basic pay of a few people who were at the top of the band, through an EPI, performance shares or both. Managers also can reward a team, unit, branch, or organization by giving employees additional compensation, called “Organizational Achievement Recognition.”