| Comment Number: | OL-10510010 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 11:37:29 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 would like to express my concerns about the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) as printed in the Federal Register on February 14, 2005. Despite Congress’ wishes this concept plan was created without the input of Unions. This system smells of patronage and seriously undermines employee’s rights to work in an open and unbiased work environment free of political pressure. 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. My first concern is for annual pay raises. Under the General Schedule and FWS employees pay was clear and everyone received them. This pay raise would be taken away under NSPS. Now annual pay raises can be an uncertainty. As costs increase for health insurance, workers may be losing ground by denied annual pay raises. My second concern is the proposed pay for performance or “friend of the supervisor pay system” as I’ve heard it called. 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. My third concern is that 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. The fourth and most important concern that I have is that Federal employees could be assigned anywhere in the world, even into a war zone, with little or no notice. I signed up for a civilian job and do not feel that civilian deployment should be part of my job requirement. I did not enlist in the military. Today’s volunteer system works well. NSPS will divert the attention of defense workers from the soldiers’ welfare to protecting themselves from abuse on the job. We need work rules that preserve fairness, serve the American people, and respect the rights of Defense Department workers. In summary, I have worked for DoD for years for 21 years and I am upset with the concept paper that has been written and published in the Federal Register as the NSPS. This plan is inconsistent with the congressional intent in the National Authorization Act and clearly defies the request of Congress by denying Union involvement in the planning, development and implementation of the new personnel system. The proposed changes will not enhance national security, but will restrict the freedom of workers to correct injustices in the work place. There is absolutely no correlation between denying DOD employees their collective bargaining rights and constitutional due process and enhancing national security. Thank you for allowing me to voice my concerns about the NSPS.