| Comment Number: | OL-10511406 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 3:19:59 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:
After reviewing the proposed new personnel regulations, certain aspects become apparent to me. First, it appears the real purpose of this personnel system is to put civilians in the military chain of command so they can be deployed or reassigned just as a member of the military. In other words it's a way of drafting civilians. Secondly, the other driving force behind this initiative is because implementing the new personnel system is a way of reducing personnel costs. It will do this by shifting compensation more from permanent base salary raises to one-time bonuses. Saying that the same amount of money initially will be available disguises that this personnel system is largely about reducing compensation, as the savings will quietly come in out year costs (due to lower base salaries and retirement annuities based on those lower based salaries). Thirdly, the new personnel system sets up an atmosphere where a supervisor can more easily abuse their authority with little protections for the workers. Lastly, while the new personnel system is suppose to replace an adversarial system, I believe the new system will only encourage resentment towards supervisors, foster animosity between workers and be a nightmare in its implementation. One of the greatest benefits of the current personnel system is that it is overwhelmingly perceived as fair and impartial. This perception of fairness will be impossible to maintain under the newly proposed personnel system. Morale and retention of employees will suffer accordingly. In addition, while the new personnel system practices are touted as great because they adopt more commercial business practices, maybe a better comparison of a good personnel system for which the current civilian personnel system is more closely fashioned would be to the military personnel system. After all doesn’t the military of the same rank gets the same pay regardless of performance? Isn’t good performance recognized in other ways then pay incentives, such as promotions for the military? One has to wonder how well such an incentive pay system proposed for civilian workers would work for the military. Not very well, I would think because it would work counter to group cohesion, morale, and achieving mission requirements. For these same reasons, I don’t think it will work well for DOD civilians either. ~ Thank you for allowing me to comment.