| Comment Number: | OL-10502757 |
| Received: | 3/2/2005 7:01:49 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:
I am writing to you because of my concern about the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) scheduled for implementation for more than 700,000 employees of the Department of Defense over the next year. I am certain that one of the Pentagon's objectives in advancing NSPS is to construct a so-called "pay for performance" system. This is another case of deceptive labeling. Various government agencies have been testing performance pay systems for more than 20 years and invariably, the results have been that the majority of workers feel cheated when advancement, promotion and pay decisions are given over to the sole discretion of a supervisor. The process typically reduces salaries and morale. It is too autocratic and eliminates any redress for decisions made on the basis of considerations other than merit. The new regulations will open the way for the "Good 'ole Boy" system where politics play too large a part. The current system has a measure of protection from favoritism by management. Pay banding with the performance pay replacing annual raises will lead to a lot of hard feelings. Under this performance pay unless a manager looks favorably upon an employee that employee may only get a 1% annual raise. This means that in effect the employee could be earning less purchasing power than the year before. For these reasons, I oppose the implementation of NSPS until the Pentagon is willing to substantively address the issues raised by the United DOD Workers Coalition.