| Comment Number: | OL-10504209 |
| Received: | 3/8/2005 5:14:14 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:
My concern regards the annual cost of living increase determined and announced by the President each year, and performance increases. It concerns me that a fair cost of living/inflation increase should in no way shape or form be tied to a performance increase. Inflation adjustments should be completely independent of performance appraisals. It is okay to not give an employee a performance increase, it is not okay to penalize him or her also by denying them the ability to hold steady financially - other corrective action should be taken. Teachers in my home state of Kansas are continually faced with this. They negotiate ad nauseum for pay increases that seldom meets the Federal inflation index. In a good year, they negotiate increases that may recover several cumulative years of salary losses due to inflation, before ever gaining a cent increase in earnings. Keep inflation adjustments and performance based increases seperate. They are completely unrelated and combining them is not fair. My other main concern regards the disparity of salaries this will create within nationwide organizations, such as with my own employer the United States Army Corps of Engineers. If there is not a levelling field (such as the current GS and step increase system) those Districts recieving more or less funding will likely have more or less money to disburse to good performers. In an agency where mobility is encouraged and broad and varied experience is a career asset, such as the Corps or many other DoD positions, salary and performance increase disparities will have a negative impact. Good performers in wealthier Districts will enjoy good raises and stay put, good performers in poorer Districts may be disheartened with more meager rewards, and good performers will have much less incentive to go where they are needed but won't be rewarded. The GS system may encumber corrective action, but it keeps nationwide employees on the same page when speaking of performance and salaries. I appreciate housecleaning the government organizations of poor performers, but not at the expense of its productive employees by means of performance award disparity and the conversion of a cost of living increase into a negotiation. NSPS will destabilize the workforce, open the door to economic disparity, and will, on the whole, be a detriment to government-wide morale.