| Comment Number: | OL-10510314 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 8:48:12 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:
The proposed rule change allow the potential for a serious conflict of interest: Nothing in the regulations will stop supervisors from being placed in the same pay pools as non-management workers. Thus supervisors would compete against the very workers they rate for the same potential raises. Holding down others' ratings would ensure more raises would be available to bosses. Additionally, no limits exist on the pay increases & bonuses that management can awared themselves or others specifically favored by managers. There is no oversight in place to prevent the abuse of large pay increases & bonuses that would seriously deplete pay pools, leaving little left over for remaining rank & file employees. These regulations would end civil service protections as well as meaningful collective bargaining. It also would eliminate seniority rules on layoffs and reductions-in-force. Thus, the potential also exists for management to easily remove a group of older workers by transferring certain selected individuals to a particular organization or code/branch and simply then RIF-ing it out of existence. Given the well-known potential for evil in the human heart, any POSSIBLE way of bending the rules to support themselves will be fully exploited by management personnel lacking proper ethical restraints. Experience has taught us that upper management simply cannot be trusted - everyone only cares for the own personal interests. We need checks & balances, as we have in our representative form of government. Without proper oversights regarding these many rule changes, the government system would slowly devolve into many different "personality cults" all seeking to curry the favor of upper leaders.