| Comment Number: | OL-10501003 |
| Received: | 2/23/2005 8:21:42 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:
Pay banding will result in employees losing money which will affect retention and performance. Currently, yearly pay increases do not result in higher wages - they merely enable employees to keep up with the increase in their insurance premiums. At some point very early in the life of pay banding, employees will experience a loss of money, as insurance premiums will continue to escalate while pay will remain the same. This will further degrade morale within the federal service and will affect recruiting AND retention issues. For instance, IT professionals are already paid a lower wage than their civilian counterparts - how will lowering their pay benefits entice them to remain in federal service? Rewarding employees for performance is a great mission statement, however, abuse of this system is extremely likely; it will be become an environment of personal agendas, politics and the 'good ole boy' system rather than pay for performance. There does not appear to be any safeguards within this system to prevent that. Further restricting union oversight will only exacerbate this process. Promotions will become almost non-existent which was once one of the main drawing attractions to being in the federal system. This new system has no enticement for new employees when even tenure is not a benefit of employment. Bottom line - you're getting rid of all of the incentives for becoming or remaining within the federal service. Sub-par pay, no tenure, no protection in pay and lowering the pay and benefits doesn't seem to be the smart way to recruit OR retain.