Comment Number: OL-10503772
Received: 3/7/2005 3:10:35 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:

This comment letter addresses the plan to implement pay banding for federal GS employees. I cannot address specific sections as there is so much to comment on. This plan is an effort to degrade our civil service rights. The civil service system has worked fine for decades, it was implemented by a brilliant president. The new rules for pay banding seem to emphasize what to do for poor performance, how to save money and how to put employees in a lower category if deemed necessary. This assumes that all supervisors are unbiased superpeople - the human factor has not been considered. This will not be performance based, it will be preference based, it will eliminate teamwork and encourage back stabbing and an in it for yourself attitude in most employees. When it comes to getting pay increases, people will do whatever they have to to make sure that they get their's. Merit increases encourage teamwork and discourage preferential treatment. Employees will not be able to plan on established increases and will not know what their future income will be. This plan assumes that most federal employees are in an "over-compensated" state. This is so far from the truth its funny. Federal employees are among the lowest paid in the nation in most careers. They ARE the lowest paid peace officers in the nation. The majority of federal employees are not in it for the money, we are here to serve the public. The least we can get is recognition in the knowledge that our small salaries will increase marginally on a regular basis. It is bad enough that half of us are having to compete w/contractors for our jobs, now you want to take away our civil service rights in the form of our merit increases and overtime rights. As one comment said, you are making dedicated DoD employees sound like the enemy. The government needs to appreciate its hard working and dedicated employees and stop making our jobs more difficult at every turn. Almost every federal employee is doing more than one job due to budget cuts - DON'T TAKE OUR ANNUAL RAISES AWAY WHILE MAKING US WORK HARDER. The rule encourages the development of hostile work environments. STOP PAY BANDING.