| Comment Number: | OL-10505689 |
| Received: | 3/11/2005 3:47:43 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:
Paragraph 9901.313 National security compensation comparability. The GS-13 employees have already been the recipient of unfair compensation practices with the recent implementation of special salary rates. For example, a GS-13 IT specialist (2210) is inelligible for increases given to the GS-5 through GS-12 grades, at all steps even though the individual might be in a Non-Supervisory position and has earned his status through expertise in his field over many years. With the conversion to the NSPS system, compensation comparability will most likely divide paybands to include GS-11 to GS-13 as one band and GS-14 and 15 as another. The individual who is a technical GS-13, step 10 will most likely be placed at the pinacle of the second-highest payband. Such employees will be unable to qualify for a higher payband unless they discard the technical side of the career field for promotion to a Supervisory position. In other words, in the name of career advancement, he or she must leave the 'area of expertise' for which their stature was originally achieved, creating a large void where their technical prowess used to serve the Army. I would like to see a feature added to the NSPS which would give any technical expert a compensation incentive to continue his or her vital contributions rather than to force them into managerial positions for a deserved salary increase. This would, no doubt, relieve the directional quandry many technical experts are faced with as they reach the 'top of their technical game', and would also preserve the Army's ability to keep great civilian talent on their employment rolls.