Comment Number: OL-10509940
Received: 3/15/2005 9:31:35 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:

This NSPS pay system the U.S. government has created has created a system that makes it legal to discriminate and be totally prejudicial against their own employees. I don't understand how anyone could possibly want to implement such a system that treats it's employees so unfairly. You talk about respecting the individual, protecting their rights guaranteed by law, the commitment to public service, to be flexible , understandable; then you tell us that labor pretty much has no say in anything according to management. You're saying one thing, and doing another. The NSPS system means seniority is meaningless. This makes no sense. You expect us to be loyal and dedicated to the mission, which we are, expect us to give 100 percent all the time, which we do, and then management can turn around and tell us that none of that matters. We are loyal to you, but you don't have to be loyal to us. We can be relieved at any time for any reason and out time in service whether it be 20, 30 or 40 years for some, no longer means anything. To find out seniority no longer means anything, particularly in a RIF, is a major problem. Pay for performance. Sounds fine on paper. However, what happens if you have a supervisor who plays favorites? Or someone who is not fond of you. We know this happens constantly in the private sector as well as in federal government. One could do an Outstanding job, but the bottom line is if you are not well liked it doesn't matter how hard you work or how well you perform. You won't receive any pay raise anyway. The Rating Methodology is also a concern because once again how many shares an employee gets is open to favoritism. Even though one may have many accomplishments and achievements, there is too much room for discrimination. And the rating level dictates on how many shares one receives, and therefore, how much money you receive. Pay Pools - who are these pay pool managers? Who are the management officials who are also involved in the pay pool? Will this money still be there for us civilian employees or will it be used for other reasons much like the pay pool for Social Security. And we all know how well that is going now don't we. Money is taken out of that all the time for other things and that money is never returned. You cannot simply withdraw from an account. Performance pay out - Once again pay pool managers have the discretion to determine the amount of money an employee will receive. Once again, this is open to discrimination and favortisim. The old system worked just fine. Ever hear the phrase, "if it's not broke, don't fix it." Well, the old system was not broke by any means. You're going to spend all this money on a new system when you're not even sure how it's going to work. During our briefing our speaker didn't even know several answers to questions put to him. The National Security Personnel system is totally flawed giving supervisors and management officials complete control to legally discriminate against any employee they wish. This system will set labor back 50 years.