| Comment Number: | OL-10500811 |
| Received: | 2/22/2005 8:30:52 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:
There are four particularly insidious aspects of this system that the senior management of the NSPS continually REFUSED to answer or address in a “townhall” meeting last fall at Patuxent River, MD. These four issues are at the heart and soul of safeguarding and protecting the Federal Worker’s rights. Please keep in mind that the current GS pay scale system based on specific skills was implemented more than 50 years ago to help get rid of (or to at least keep to a minimum) the rampant cronyism that was the norm within the government before then. 1) Can workers can be moved DOWN the pay band, or into a lower pay band by Senior Management? Just as Senior Management has the “flexibility” to move workers UP the band, will they also be able to move them down the band, or to a lower band, with little more justification than for “National Security” reasons? For example, if the head of NAVAIR needs to come up with a $50M “Tax” to pay for the Global War on Terrorism, will they have the “flexibility” to either take the funds from Programs (fewer F/A-18s) or simply move everyone in a particular band down that band to save the money needed for "Nationsl Security" programs? Will any and all actions by the Senior Executive Management (who, by the way are exempt from this system) be allowed as long as they use the rationale that they are based on “National Security” reasons? Will workers have any recourse? 2) Can pay increases mandated by Congress, like a 2.5% General Schedule increase, be applied only to the Band and not the individual, thereby limiting any actual increases to only those individuals at the bottom of the band? At what level in the Senior Executive Management hierarchy will these powers to interpret any and all pay increases to apply only to the Pay Band reside? Would this action allow management to “save the cost” of giving every worker a raise, and allow “that savings” to be applied to whatever “National Security” programs or projects management wants? Will workers have any recourse? 3) Can workers have their jobs moved anywhere across the country? Can the Senior Executive Management decide that, because workers in different parts of the country currently get different amounts of Locality Pay to partially compensate for increased cost of living in those areas, to simply move thousands of jobs from high cost-of-living areas (San Francisco, New York City, San Jose, Washington DC, etc.) to a lower cost-of-living area (North Carolina, Idaho, etc), for “National Security” reasons? Would workers be entitled to any compensation (PCS Move Orders, etc)? Will workers have any recourse other than to accept the move or quit? 4) Can the "flexibility" aspect of this be interpreted to mean that workers can be reassigned to a new job specialty by Senior Executive Management? For example, can Senior Executive Management determine that they have too many people in one particular job specialty and not enough in another, can they then designate a certain number from one specialty to cross over to the other specialty? If so, what job-training will be made available to workers? Once crossed over, will their performance rating against others who have more experience in that specialty be used to get them evaluated down to a lower band or even fired? Will workers have any recourse other than to accept the transition or quit? A fiftth question was also asked, but not answered. 5) Why was NAVAIR forced to do away with their Merit Pay and Evaluation System ijn favor of a Pass/Fail system? Four years ago, we received ranked grades, 1 thru 5, and received pay bonuses dependent upon our grades.