Comment Number: OL-10509081
Received: 3/15/2005 12:38:44 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 have read much of the information posted on the NSPS Web page. I have drilled down through the information and attempted to see where I would fall on the conversion chart from the GS scale to the new NSPS scale. Even though I hold an MBA, I had considerable difficulty converting to the new pay scale. It took me 3 times to feel comfortable that I had converted my salary correctly. It seems to me the process could be simplified. I'm also concerned that I won't be able to get good raises under the new system. I'm currently at a GS-13 step 10 and unless I get a promotion, I'm basically maxed out under the new system with the posibility of actually losing money over the next four to five years when I plan on retiring. This new system gives considerably more power to the supervisor, and although I have had pretty good supervisors in the past, getting "stuck" with a bad one could significantly hurt my retirement income. I suggest you change the banding process to include GS-13 and GS-14 employees in the same band instead of the current structure of GS-12 and 13s together and GS-14 and GS-15s together. I know there are a lot of employees in my same situation who may retire early rather than take a chance on being ostricized under the new system. This would cause a major "brain drain" of experience in the federal work force that could have serious impacts on the defense posture of our country. This is another case of the government changing the contract I signed when I hired in without giving me fair compensation. They already did it to me once before by taking away the social security retirement I rightfully earned with the "offset rule" enacted several years ago. Even though I contributed to two different retirement systems, I am denied my right to recieve my full compensation from each system just because I work for the federal government. No other group of people were singled out to lose their retirement benefits like we were. If you keep changing the rules on us, I don't blame young people not wanting to work for the government because of the hypocrisy. Thank you for allowing me to comment. I hope you seriously consider the suggestions I made and will defer implementation of the system in DoD until the problems I identified are rectified.