| Comment Number: | OL-10511077 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 1:57:07 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:
Page 7552 5CFR Chapter XCIX Part 9601 RIN 3206-AK76/0790-AH82 “NSPS is essential to the department’s efforts to create an environment in which the total force, uniformed and civilians, thinks and operates as one cohesive unit” This system will not create a cohesive unit. Instead it will create a competition for pay raises and job security. This will mean the absolute destruction of morale. It will also mean that in order to get a pay raise employees will not help each other because of this competition. Page 7553 Federal Personnel management system is based on important core principles. Those principles are operationalized in an inflexible “one-size-fits-all system”. The core principles are the merit systems principles against prohibited practices and against abuse of veteran’s rights. These rights will be exhibited as remaining the same but the discretion of a manager who might have a propensity towards self-important goals will misuse this, misinterpret this and even down right abuse this to weed out who they don’t like. This can be based anything. The potential for abuse is enormous that the taxpayers should be made aware of the amount of financial obligation that will be required to respond to administrative and legal challenges. This section does not even address those expenses and they will probably not be counted in this context. This will allow the DoD to claim they have saved billions when in fact they have created more expenses and hid them from the public by placing them into a different account that does not relate to these changes. Page 7553 The labor system encourages a dispute-oriented, adversarial relationship between labor and management. The system does not encourage a dispute oriented system! This system is method to achieve fair and equitable treatment to the work force and to develop ways collectively to improve the efficiency of the government as a return on investment to the citizens of the United States and create an environment of productivity based on collaborative efforts of the workforce. To dismantle the workers ability to contribute and replace it with a false sense of acceptance by the DoD is only going to lead to the departure of the best and the brightest until we get to the point were the government will only be able to operate with a contractor workforce. This will violate the 50/50 rule even further than it has and will be a further violation of law. Page 7553 Fundamental change in personnel management has created positive results on individual’s career growth and opportunities, workforce responsiveness. This comment is probably based on the China Lake Demonstration Project and others like it. Throughout this section there is a theme of one-size doesn’t fit all” But use China Lake as example is outrageous. Those people were working without a bargaining unit and they were working in a professional series. The work environment was different than the rest of the government and it does not even compare to the operations throughout the government where there are many different specialties, trades, and crafts working simultaneously in a collaborative environment. To ignore this and apply China Lakes operations as a standard is a farce. Page 7553 “The law provides the Department and OPM in collaboration with employee representatives” Understanding that comments must be related to specific points I agree with a reference point so that these comments can be directly connected to specific statements in the notice but I believe that the specific restrictions as to how they should be identified are a tool to disqualify and avoid reading comments. As I read through this document I find a disgusting and revolting plan that absolutely guts the rights of unions, relies on managers that are having difficulty now, and a vile attempt to destroy the ability to be cohesive, not develop it. The result is that the taxpayers of America are going to get a major bill, possibly a tax increase of the efficiency of the DoD will be destroyed as well. Collective bargaining rights and the Civil Service system are NOT threats to the national security they are a mainstay! Page 7554 The MSPB may only order corrective action if it determines that the DoD decision was: Arbitrary and capricious With the elimination of written rules and the implementation of employer-employee relationships where there is a verbal communication between the supervisor and management is about as arbitrary as you can get. There undoubtedly be actions against employees based on false and contrived events that describe performance with a overt or subtle discrimination against an employee for either a violation of the EEO basis’s or personal preferences that are contrary such as who your friends are or even as foolish and petty as looking like some one that manger don’t like. If you dismiss this as an exaggeration then you are fooling your self. This kind of persecution already occurs event though it is check. The reason it is in check is because of 5 CFR and the other existing regulations that the DoD is about to scrap! Unsupported by substantial evidence With the dissolution of written guidelines and collective bargaining agreements the management officials of DoD have a significantly reduced standard. The decisions that cause extreme pain on families will no longer have a guideline to follow to ensure fairness. They will be directly and solely based on “because I said so”. Now that is a threat to national security! Page 7554 DoD and OPM are not limited by any provision of title 5 This is an open invitation to a turf war. The same kind of turf war that is currently going on at DHS. The turf war is hidden behind great stories of success in the press but those who follow that closely know the truth and Congress and other legislative bodies are well aware of this. Altering the methods of establishing qualification standards is a way to pick and chose without regard to talent. After all, that is what the NSPS proposal is all about! It doesn’t matter if you excel at doing the job. What matters is doing what your told no matter how misguided the direction is (there will not be many written standards) or how it contributes to personal agendas or turf wars. The methods of assigning, reassigning, detailing, transferring, or promoting employees This is merely a way of circumventing PD’s. To a manager, using a person who has other skills than what they are hired for is awfully inviting. But the way this will be abused if awful! There will be assignments to employees who are not capable of doing them because it is outside of their regular skills. At this point most managers would say that the would be fair and not abuse this scenario but with the reductions, not retentions of skill levels this flawed scheme called NSPS they will be forced to rely on workers who are not up to the expectations and when failure and injuries occur the blame will placed on the loyal and dedicate worker and the substantial evidence will be the testimony of the over taxed and over pressured manager who may or may not be hiding their own personal agenda. Page 7555 The Guiding Principles are: Put the mission first This is an affront to all Federal workers when the leaders of our government and our managers believe that workers do not put the mission first! This is a perfect example of a personal agenda. Although it describes many levels of managers it is a collection of misguided and perverse notions that these managers and leaders can do a better job with less money, less skills and less workers. Please stop fooling yourselves and the taxpayers with this “Spoils System Scheme” A76 and the PBBC plans are already a scandalous disgrace. With members of the Defense contracting community being indicted, fired, blacklisted and jailed daily how can you say this system will work??? Respect the individual This is the biggest piece of window dressing I have read thus far in this farce! How will abusing, threatening, intimidating, creating a fear factor, and personal agendas evolve into respect? Ensure accountability at all levels With the dissolution of written regulations, the disconnection from the FLRA and MSPB, and the implementation of a governing body who is merely part of the management structure and to whom the ability to circumvent all methods of fair and reasonable oversight can be considered accountability is a flat out lie! Be competitive and cost effective The only competition here is worker against worker! With pay for performance there will be less cooperation because the workers ability to obtain the substantial reduced pay raise will result in secrecy and, possibly vandalism. Competition, in terms of giving away the work to contractors whose malfeasance has not even began to peak yet, and cost effectiveness that will be “proven” by a shell game of statistics that show how much was “saved” but hide how the real costs by diverting those costs to a different “color of money” Agile and Responsive workforce This is a general term that sounds like a directive to sign a blank document now and the details will be filled in at a later date! Workers will be ordered to move to far away worksites away from their families at the discretion of a manager who is not concerned about their well being but is concerned about meeting the constantly reduced budgets. This does not sound like a real effective plan to enhance loyalty, create employee buy-in and keep costs down. If I am the only one who can see this then the DoD better get ready to have a very inept workforce of people who are unskilled. Because even though the older employees are stuck in the DoD and cannot leave because of pension benefits a younger employee with any kind of talent at all would be out of their mind to stay with the DoD and the result would be a bunch of dotes being relied on to secure our nation Page 7559 The new classifications system will streamline method of classification This sounds like a method of operation that reduces the scrutiny of a hired employee because if they can’t do the work they will be blamed for the manager’s rush and their ineptitude to hire the correct skills required. But with the transparency and fairness principles we don’t need to worry do we. This will mean a threat to the national security and the ability to mobilize in an emergency. But everything I read in this document suggests that this is not the real concern. The real concern is the total annihilation of unions and the expansion of control over the workforce without regard to efficiency