Comment Number: OL-10508269
Received: 3/14/2005 11:41:03 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:

I am totally against the new NSPS for these reasons and others: "Employees will not lose pay under NSPS" huh? What a misleading statement. Yes, employees who enter the NSPS pay system will enter at their current pay levels. But what happens after that? There is a fascinating new concept in NSPS that adds another tool to the management arsenal: the power to cut an employee's pay 10 percent in any given year because his performance isn't where the supervisor wants it. By the end of a decade working for the same supervisor, the employee could be working for less than minimum wage! It legalizes the Good Ole' Boy system, if your boss doesn't like you, you will never get a raise no matter how good a worker you are. Under NSPS there is no process for employees to challenge their performance rating and there is no due process for employees affected by an adverse action under NSPS. DOD says employees will still have the right to advance notice, to reply and to appeal a decision and that appeals to MSPB administrative judges will still be allowed. Right. The advance notice is cut in half, from 30 to 15 days, with only the first 10 days being allowed to make a reply. And what happens if DOD doesn't like an MSPB judge's decision? Under NSPS, it gets to appeal the decision to, guess who?, DOD. Sure, the employee can then appeal DOD's decision to MSPB headquarters, but under the proposed regulations, MSPB would so hog-tied they could never disagree with DOD (under the present system, MSPB can reopen and correct a decision of one of its judges for any reason). And, DOD still gets the last laugh because it can appeal MSPB's decision to the Federal Circuit (under the present system, only OPM, not any individual federal agency, can file such an appeal, and they have to certify that the case involves a major issue of civil service law). The NSPS is simply a bad idea.