| Comment Number: | OL-10511942 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 6:42:07 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:
9901.905 Impact on existing agreements The DoD civilian workforce has been instrumental in the success of our military while under the current management system. There have never been any reported cases of where the current management system caused a failure or compromised the mission of our Armed Forces. 9901.907 National Security Labor Relations Board Without independent 3rd party review and with the Secretary able to override MSPB and the FLRA, the procedure for grievances is still in place, but not on a level playing field. 9901.910 Management Rights NSPS will speed up the ability to eliminate jobs. Under the proposed management rights, management has the right to make determinations in the matter of, among other things, contracting out. Couple that with the less intrusive RIF capabilities that agencies will have and it becomes apparent that transitioning jobs from the government to the private sector becomes much easier. I don’t feel comforted by this thought. Subpart A – General Provisions 9901.107 Relationship to other provisions. Subpart B - Classification Subpart C- Pay and Pay Administration 9901.321 DoD may establish ranges of basic pay for pay bands, with minimum and maximum rates set and adjusted as provided in 9901.322, Setting and adjusting rate ranges. Employees may not receive a salary increase equal to the amount they have earned towards their next within grade increase, because “buy-in” will be at the sole, exclusive discretion of the Secretary. Locality adjustments will be determined at the Secretary’s sole and exclusive discretion, based upon various factors to include “available funds”. If the Secretary determines that the money can be better spent in supporting the mission of the Department, funds may not be available for locality adjustments. The Secretary also will determine when and if a locality adjustment will be applied. Also, any such adjustments are subject to the rating you receive by your management. Your rating is not subject to be grieved under any negotiated grievance procedure. It may be challenged by a process yet to be determined! The overall pot will be the same under NSPS as would be if we were to have remained under the current system. However, if someone gets significantly more money under NSPS, that means it would have to be taken from someone else. When do supervisors have time for more training, with all the classes they are already having to take? Oh by the way, the work won’t stop! Also, no monies have been allocated for this supposed training. 9901.343 Pay reduction based on unacceptable performance and/or conduct Personal conduct, a purely subjective measurement, will be added to performance indicators and you have a system that is doomed to fail. Its success will be in the fact that the ratings will not be subject to a negotiated grievance process and that the pay out cannot be challenged at all. 9901.352 Setting an employee’s starting pay Since DoD wants to be salary competitive with private industry for the young college grads, if they get larger salaries as an incentive to join civil service, that means that the money must be taken from someplace else…our former WIGIs or COLAs! 9901.352 Setting pay upon reassignment 9901.511 External Recruitment and Internal Placement 9901.607 Retention standing (RIF) It is true that in developing a RIF retention list, that Veterans Preference is still a consideration. However, with the proposed changes to how competitive areas are defined, veterans preference can be severely, if not totally, wiped out. With the new NSPS, traditional bump and retreat rights can be limited to a specific organization, funding line, etc… Even with veteran preference, you cannot displace someone outside of this narrowly defined group, even though they may be in your same series/function and have no vets preference at all. 9901.712 Mandatory removal offenses.