| Comment Number: | OL-10508225 |
| Received: | 3/14/2005 9:32:31 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:
As a Department of Defense employee, I am very concerned about the proposed changes in the proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS) regulations issued by the Department of Defense (the Department) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). I believe that these proposed regulations exceed the authority Congress granted in the NSPS statute in the following ways: 1. Collective bargaining will be gutted. This is in direct voilation of Congress’ explicit order in 9901.905(a), 9901.914(d)(5), and 5 U.S.C. 9902(b). This provision will provide the Department the authority to make any change it desires through “DoD or Component Issuances.” The Department seeks to declare such issuances to be non-negotiable and superior to collectively bargained agreements. These issuances, while barring any negotiation over these changes, in spite of Congress’ specific orders in the statute to the contrary, violate the specific Congressional directive in 5 U.S.C. 9902(b) to preserve collective bargaining by expanding management rights so dramatically as to deny bargaining in almost any circumstance.. 2. Management will now have the power "to take whatever other actions may be necessary to carry out the Department's mission." This proposal effectively ends collective bargaining in the Department and is again in violation of Congress' order to the contrary. Management will be able to apply it to any situation and deny bargaining, since the clause has no definition or limitation. 3. The Department’s proposed NSPS regulation 9901.907 (a)(1) intends to create a new labor relations review board, costing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to invent a structure similar to the existing FLRA. The members of this board would be appointed solely by the Secretary of Defense, with no Congressional or outside oversight. In 5 U.S.C. 9902(m)(6), Congress required the Department to ensure that any new labor relations system provided for an independent third party review of the Department’s decisions. This violates Congress’ specific instructions to ensure an independent third party review. In addition, the secretary for Defense will be given unilateral power to appoint as many members to this review board as he wishes and if the board begins to make decisions the he doesn't like, the Secretary can add more members until the review board begins to issue decisions that he approves of. This is in direct violation of Congress' instructions in 5 U.S.C. 9902(m)(6). 4. The proposed NSPS regulation 9901.807(k)(8)(iii) denies employees their right to a fair hearing of their appeals for adverse actions taken against them by the Department. In this proposal, the Department reserves for itself the right to unilaterally reverse the decision of an MSPB Administrative Judge (AJ), merely because the Department does not agree that the decision was correct. This is the equivalent of the prosecution being able to tell a courtroom judge that the decision just rendered is not what the prosecution wanted, so the prosecution will overturn the judge’s decision! DoD and OPM should scrap their harmful proposals for NSPS and work collaboratively with employee