| Comment Number: | OL-10507550 |
| Received: | 3/14/2005 12:19:22 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:
SUBPART F - Workforce Shaping Pages 7588-7590 Section 9901.601-611 Under this subpart of the proposed NSPS regulations, the DoD will have total flexibility to layoff employees in any organizational unit, line of business, product line, funding line, and several categories of jobs and pay structures. Through the use of surgical RIFs, transfers, furloughs, and other actions, management will have new powers to reassign or remove employees for almost any reason. Section 9901.605(a) states: “Basis for competitive area”. The Department may establish a competitive area on the basis of one or more of the following considerations: (1) Geographical locations(s); (2) Line(s) of business; (3) Product line(s); (4) Organizational unit(s); and (5) Funding line(s). Section 9901.606(b) states: “The Department may further define competitive groups on the basis of one or more of the following considerations: (1) Career group; (2) Pay schedule; (3) Occupational series or specialty; (4) Pay band; or (5) Trainee status. In contrast to existing government-wide regulations, DoD will have the ability to create new competitive areas and groups using a variety of criteria when conducting targeted RIFs. This will result in staffing reductions based on many different factors, which will make it virtually impossible for an adversely impacted employee to get a fair hearing when challenging an action. In essence, DoD wants the ability to customize its RIF actions without regard to civil service rules, which were originally instituted to balance the interests of affected workers with the legitimate mission requirements of agencies. Under NSPS, the scales will be tipped completely in favor of the DoD. Employees with many years of service and highly satisfactory performance will be much more susceptible to a RIF, since the proposed regulations place more value on recent performance ratings than on long-term consistency of work. Under this new arrangement, a DoD civilian worker with three years on the job with the highest performance rating in the most recent rating period could be retained over a 30-year employee with the 2nd highest rating over his/her entire career. These revised rules could cause DoD to lose many of its most skilled and experienced employees, which will jeopardize national security. This new process is not even the “performance-based” system claimed by the DoD. Non-performance factors, such as organizational unit, product and funding lines, and other considerations will affect RIFs more directly than employee performance ratings, which contradicts the purpose and intent of NSPS, as claimed by the DoD. Even veterans will have their current employment rights severely restricted or taken away, since DoD will be able to carry out surgical RIFs within pre-determined competitive areas and groups. The Federal Register states (page 7564): “The proposed regulations retain existing veterans’ preference protections in reduction in force (RIF).” This is completely FALSE! NSPS does not retain current veterans’ preference in a RIF, it reduces the rights of veterans by placing many other factors (i.e. organizational unit, product line, funding line, etc.) in front of veterans preference. Clearly, these were not the “personnel flexibilities” that Congress envisioned under NSPS. The current RIF rules that apply to DoD employees should be retained until a truly fair and appropriate set of rules is proposed.