| Comment Number: | OL-10500503 |
| Received: | 2/17/2005 1:30:42 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:
The proposal doesn't show specific pay bands and how grade levels or series will be moved into the pay bands. If you are assigned a pay band and there is no room for pay increases there doesn't seem to be a way for employees to receive an increase in their salary. I understand that your supervisor can give you a one time cash award but unless it is significant and not taxed at the higest bracket it won't be the same and doesn't carry forward to the next year. How are we assurred that the commands will put enough money aside for performance and cash awards? Funds are very tight and if they don't have to give out performance awards then they may use the money for something else. How do you keep up with cost inflation? The cost of living in our area has doubled or more over the past year and I don't think anyone has looked at it recently even with our current system. If I'm reading it right it looks like a person with a poor performance can loose up to 10% of their salary. Decreaseing a poor performers salary is not an incentive to make that employee improve. They need to be put on a PIP and given guidance on how to improve. If you have a good supervisor you should never get to this point. The employee should have been informed all along and the supervisor should be guiding this person to ensure that their performand improves. If not then there would be grounds for separation. I have never seen a pay decrease due to poor performance anywhere that I am aware of in the civilian sector. The way the pay band is set it looks like the only people that will have an advantage is if you are set in the middle of the pay band so you will have room for salary increases. It doesn't seem fair to people that have worked in the system for many years and may be at the top of a pay band. Grouping series together seems to make it better for the supervisors but not the employees. Employees may be expected to do more than they are capable of if series are grouped together or they can be shuffled around easier to meet the needs of the command and not the employee. Example a GS 9 and a GS6 can possibly be in the same pay band and series but do different levels of work. If the GS6 is expected to do the same work, then they should receive the same pay. These concerns have come up from many of our employees here. Thanks for listening.