| Comment Number: | OL-10503564 |
| Received: | 3/7/2005 4:56:45 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:
I am very concerned about the proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS) regulations issued by the Department of Defense (the Department) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). These proposed regulations have exceed the authority Congress. The Department’s proposed NSPS regulations clearly violate Congress’ explicit order to preserve collective bargaining by overriding any provision of a collectively bargained agreement through “DoD or Component Issuances.” In proposed NSPS regulations, the Department seeks to declare such issuances to be non-negotiable and superior to collectively bargained agreements. This is contrary to what Congress mandated and required. The Department’s proposed NSPS regulations violate also deny bargaining in almost any circumstance. In the proposed NSPS regulation 9901.910(a)(2), the Department declares that management will now have the power “to take whatever other actions may be necessary to carry out the Department’s mission,” a clause that literally has no definition or limitation in the regulation. This proposed management “right” effectively ends collective bargaining in the Department, in direct violation of Congress’ specific order to the contrary, as management can literally apply it to any situation in the Department to deny bargaining. Congress required the Department to ensure that any new labor relations system provided for an independent third party review of the Department’s decisions. However, the Department’s proposed NSPS intends to create a new labor relations review board, costing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to invent a structure similar to the existing FLRA. Further, under proposed NSPS regulations, the members of this board would be appointed solely by the Secretary of Defense, with no Congressional or outside oversight. This violates Congress’ specific instructions to ensure an independent third party review. Proposed NSPS regulations violate Congress’ specific instructions to ensure independent third party reviews of the Department’s labor relations decisions. In proposed NSPS regulations, the Secretary of Defense is provided the unilateral power to appoint as many members to this review board as desired. In other words, if the review board begins to issue decisions the Secretary doesn’t like, the Secretary can “pack” the Board with as many new people as required until the board issues decisions to the Secretary’s liking. The proposed NSPS regulations denies employees their right to a fair hearing of their appeals for adverse actions taken against them by the Department. In this proposal, the Department reserves for itself the right to unilaterally reverse the decision of an MSPB Administrative Judge (AJ), merely because the Department does not agree that the decision was correct. This is the equivalent of the prosecution being able to tell a courtroom judge that the decision just rendered is not what the prosecution wanted, so the prosecution will overturn the judge’s decision! I believe that these harmful proposals for NSPS should be set aside and that OPM and DoD should work collaboratively with employee unions to develop a new system, as Congress directed them to do!