| Comment Number: | OL-10503497 |
| Received: | 3/6/2005 2:21:05 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:
Annual performance pay increases–Based on performance/contribution, rather than longevity–Larger increases to outstanding performers–Increases not given to unacceptable performers This sounds like “age discrimination to me” I have been a military spouse for 30 years and a DOD employee for 20 of those years. I have worked my way up the GS ladder through dedication, hard work, and excellence in job performance. I have as a military spouse and a civil servant organized more Bar-B-Q’s, fund raisers, hail and farewells, promotions, retirement ceremonies, Christmas parties, open house events, funerals, Christmas in April’s, Give a child a Christmas, volunteered for the Red Cross, and the list could go on another two pages. My life has been dedicated to this country and the Air Force. I am now 52 years old. To young to retire, to old to start over. I have given the best years of my life to my nation. I have worked when I was to exhausted to stand. I have worked shift work that put my God and family second to mission needs. All this with the faith in promise by the DOD guidelines in place at the time I took my oath and through these past 20 years that my commitment would earn me the rights and protection as a vested tenured employee. This tenure would protect me in RIF if I served long enough and was able to meet the standards set. I have always been a superior performer. I have never surked my duty, giving more than most. Now as I approach my senior years when I am growing older and do not have the energy nor stamina that I once had in my youth I see the requirement of “contribution” in the list of guidelines for annual performance. I have no problem with that if it relates to “on the job”. I do know that it will be read by many supervisors as if the employee is involved with the unit/base/community in “other” activities. I feel I have paid my dues. I still get involved in activities but not as much as I once did. I am tired. I feel the NSPS is a catalyst for age discrimination to the thousands of senior employees that have paid their dues. Many no longer have the stamina to keep a rigorous pace day and night, but we will be penalized because we are no longer able. The breech of faith of the Federal Government in throwing away our years of tenure is nothing short of age discrimination no matter how you write it in your proposal. I know I would have taken other employment in my youth that would have offered better pay years ago if I had not been told that my tenure would give me security and promotion potential if I stayed. The removal of tenure protection and reward is nothing more than a breech of promise. We have based our entire career and future on the guidelines set forth by OPM. Those guidelines for years have been the same. Now, after I have given twenty years of my life to reach a goal, everything I worked toward is being changed so that my years of dedication mean nothing? Again, the federal government has lied to its people. The very people who have dedicated their life to the freedom of this country! Just like our vets who have had their benefits striped away yet another breech of promise. Recruit new hires with skills? Who in their right mind would want to work for the government? Your reputation for making a promise and then breaking it precedes . Eventually the only personnel you will be able to recruit will be from other countries! Why can’t the new rules be grand fathered and allow those who have vested time complete their career under the rules that were in place when they made the decision years ago that it was worth the pay to stay. Make the NSPS a transition just like CSRS and FERS. Discrimination is a nasty word. I am already feeling like my age is a target in your new guidelines.