| Comment Number: | OL-10508683 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 9:59:31 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:
Subject: National Security Personnel System NSPS Law (Public Law 108-136) DoD/OPM Why, the National Security Personnel System is a bad bill for the nation and the wrong bill to enhance national security and defense. The NSPS system will and has demoralized many DOD employees because, it will take away their ability to have a meaningful say in decisions that affect their future and their work. The Federal Government is going to be a last-resort employer if NSPS is allowed to stands and not corrected and reviewed by Congress. Note: Why federal employees are cautious and fearful of NSPS for it will do more than just change pay for performance. It will: 1. Reduce pay for federal workers overall. 2. End civil service protections. 3. End meaningful collective bargaining for these workers. 4. End seniority rules on layoffs and reductions-in-force. 5. Allow management to decide who gets raises and change work hours and civilian deployments at will. And More! Read the comment from the people?. http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nspscomments/webcomments/ Read the Federal Register: February 14, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 29) Proposed Rules? http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nspscomments/notice.pdf The federal union and DOD employees object to the NSPS impending changes. Because performance-based raise system would pit workers against one another as they fight for a limited pot of money. The system also creates supervisor favoritism and employees could have wages unfairly reduced on false information. DOD’s desire to deploy the civilian workforce anywhere around the world on either a temporary or permanent (Including a war zone) basis reflects a poor understanding of the distinctions between military and non-military personnel. NSPS will allow this. The civilian workforce within DOD is committed to the organization’s mission, but has elected to do so in the civilian employee rather than the military service. In that regard, they should not be treated like the military, who can be subjected to deployment with little or no notice to meet changing mission requirements. Public Law 108-136 also reflects Congress’s determination, that DOD employees be afforded due process and be treated fairly in appeals they bring with respect to their employment. Notwithstanding these clear congressional directions, we fear NSPS concepts will: 1. Eliminate the right of a union to submit serious adverse actions imposed against bargaining unit employees to an arbitrator. 2. Reduce an employer’s burden of proof in adverse actions cases to a standard that would require DoD’s decisions to be upheld even if they are more likely than not to have been improper. 3. Establish a list of mandatory removal offenses that can be appealed only to a panel appointed by the Secretary. 4. Impose a higher standard of review for an employee to prevail in a grievance challenging a performance rating, which is used as a determinant of an employee’s pay under the new system. Congress could not have envisioned the drastic reductions in federal employee rights under NSPS. Proposals and outlined in the Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 29 / Monday, February 14, 2005 / Proposed Rules. These appear to be based more on some political philosophy and DOD dictates, than on a demonstrated need for changes that would enhance the agency’s ability to perform its mission. No evidence shows that current employee due process protections or the decisions of an arbitrator or the MSPB jeopardize national security or defense. I urge Congress to instruct the Secretary of Defense by letter, and or a (Dear Colleague) to halt any further development or implementation of NSPS unless and until the Pentagon is willing to substantively address the issues raised by the Federal Unions. The United S