Comment Number: OL-10509370
Received: 3/15/2005 2:48:57 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 some very strong concerns in reference to the proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS). I believe the proposed NSPS will undermine the Civil Service and hurt the mission of the DoD employees. This system, if implemented as proposed, will literally open a wider door for the management buddy network to expand even more. It is taking away all employees’ rights and giving full authority to our management, who are tax payers just as employees are. Bargaining rights are practically being dissolved. How can this be…..How can this happen? Wrong, so very wrong, was I to think I had a secure job with the Federal Government. Civil service job security will cease under this NSPS system. Congress must have had blinders on when this was signed into law. Surely, a government that cares for the good of the people would not have knowingly agreed to this! NSPS is a cold and malicious system that will work against dedicated government workers. The NSPS proposals seem to treat the employees who help defend our country as the enemy. Most DoD employees work hard and are committed. I believe that mistreating the employees will hurt the agency’s mission. I am very upset by NSPS. This system will change the way workers are paid, evaluated, promoted, fired, scheduled, and treated. These rules would create a system in which federal managers are influenced by favoritism rather than serving the civil concerns of the American people. Please consider the following comments and delay final implementation until the proper steps have been taken to effectively involve the elected representatives of Defense Department workers. Annual Pay Raises: Under the General Schedule and the Federal Wage System, employee pay was clear. It was funded by Congress and could not be taken away. However, NSPS will take away this certainty. Salaries and bonuses are funded by DoD. In the past – as recently as just last year – DoD did not fund its awards program. Given the agency’s miserable record on this issue, how can employees feel confident that our salaries and bonuses will be funded in the future? "Friend of the Supervisor" Pay System: With the new patronage pay system, which DoD calls "pay for performance," the amount of a worker's salary will depend almost completely on the personal judgment of his or her manager. This system will force workers to compete with one another for pay raises, which will destroy teamwork, increase conflict among employees, and reward short-term outcomes. There is no guarantee that even the best workers will receive a pay raise or that the pay offered will be fair or competitive. This system will create a situation in which workers are in conflict with one another and afraid to speak out about harassment, violations of the law, and workplace safety problems. Furthermore, there will be no impartial appeal system to assure that everyone is treated fairly. Schedules and Overtime: NSPS will allow managers to schedule employees to work without sufficient advance notice of schedule changes. This will make it extremely difficult for working parents to care for their children and family. It will also mean that abusive managers could harass employees with bad schedules or short notice. Overtime rotations can be canceled, which means that employees may not be able to plan adequately for childcare and other important responsibilities. COMMENTS ON PROPOSED NSPS REGULATIONS --RIN 3206-AK76/0790-AH82 We are a group of tax payers that stand together united and as individual United States citizens opposed to the proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS). We as tax payers demand better service from our Government than this system has to offer. Our family and close friends that are employed by the DoD should be outraged by this proposal. There are a few among this group who had aspirations of being a civil servant employee, though, these aspirations are null under such a system if put into place. Wrong were we to believe our Government was for the good of the people. NSPS should stand for “Not So Pleasing $ystem.” NSPS will place competition among employees that would otherwise be working together as a team. Doors will be opened for managers to exercise unfair practices with no recourse offered for the victim’s defense. The definition of “good performance” is totally at the discretion of the manager. Good performance... . sounds like the window is wide open for a stronger buddy system to form. There are not any constraints in place to stop the supervisor from regularly rewarding his buddy vs. the dedicated and loyal employee. The plans are to allow “tax paying supervisors” to basically have full authority over “tax paying employees,” while structuring the Government agencies as if they are privately owned by the supervisor. The supervisor has no more at stake than the employee, yet will be given throne rights under this system. We request the proposed NSPS ruling be overturned in its entirety. There is nothing fair about this new human resources management system for DoD. The regulations are vague in areas... not clear, leaving Government employees wide open for any hard balls thrown at them. NSPS is a bureaucratic tool, full of bluff and fluff, used to ruse tax payers. As tax payers, we are very angry and disgusted about an article we read ( Update/NAGE Communications/Feb 1, 2005 which states “DoD’s plan to spend $3 billion on NSPS was irresponsible considering the $500 billion federal deficit, and the cuts being made to various defense programs that are much more important to the nation’s defense than a new personnel program.” We strictly oppose such a bias system. We have a voice and demand to be heard.