| Comment Number: | OL-10506946 |
| Received: | 3/14/2005 1:01:17 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 write to express my concerns about changes to the work rules in the DOD. The proposed regulations, know as the NSPS, were printed in the Federal Register on Feb 14, 2005. This message will be sent to both DoD and my representatives in Congress. I have been a DoD employee for a couple of years, and before that I was an active duty member in the US Air Force for 22 years. I understand that in life comes changes and some are for the better and some are not. I do not believe that the old personnel system was broken, and since the other system was working and we have stayed the strongest country in the world over the last years maybe that should have been taken that under consideration. I am angry that these proposals treat us employees who defend our nation as the enemy. DoD employees work hard and are committed. Mistreating employees will hurt the agency. NSPS appears to destroy objectivity in the way workers are paid, evaluated, promoted, fired, scheduled, and treated by creating a system in which federal managers are influenced by favoritism, rather then serving the civil concerns of the American people. Annual Pay Raises Under the General schedule, employee pay is funded by congress and cannot be taken away. However NSPS will take away this certainty. In the past – as recently as just last year – DoD did not fund its award program. Given the agencies record on this issue, how can employees feel confident that our salaries and bonuses will be funded in the future. “Friend of the Supervisor” pay System With the new patronage pay system, Which DoD calls “pay for Performance,” the amount of a worker’s salary will depend almost completely on the personal judgment of his or her manager. The system will force workers to compete with in another for pay raises, which will destroy or hamper team work and reward short term outcomes. There is no guarantee that even the best workers will receive a pay raise, or that the pay offered will be fair and competitive. This system will create a situation in which Workers are in conflict with one another and afraid to speak out about harassment, violations of the law and workplace safety problems. Furthermore, there will be no impartial appeal system to assure that everybody is treated fairly. Schedules and Overtime NSPS will allow managers to schedule employees to work without sufficient notice of schedule changes. This will make it extremely difficult for working parents to care for their children and family. It will also mean that abusive managers could harass employees with bad schedules or short notice. Overtime rotations can be cancelled, which means that employees may not be able to plan adequate for childcare and other important responsibilities. Civilian Deployment Federal employees could be assigned anywhere in the world, even into a war zone, with little or no notice. Public employees are proud to serve our country, but they are also responsible for caring for their families and personal obligations. America is at war? We are fighting for democracy abroad, but these regulations are an attack on worker’s basic rights. Furthermore NSPS will divert attention of defense workers from the soldiers’ welfare to protecting themselves from abuses on the job. I urge you to force DoD to rethink this proposal. We need work rules that preserve fairness, serve the American people, and respect the rights of Defense Department Workers.