Comment Number: OL-10512269
Received: 3/17/2005 3:18:49 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:

I believe the proposed NSPS regulations will undermine the civil service and hurt the ability of the Defense Department employees to accomplish the agency's mission. On performance of an employee, the supervisor will have the right to either give the employee a raise, or take it away, I believe this would be unfair and cause moral and team work problems. The supervisor could demote you if he did not like you, even thou you did outstanding work and turn around and give raises to someone who didnt even work just because he did like him. He also would'nt have representation from the union to help him keep his job. I hope you will hold off this NSPS system, the pass- fail system that is implemented now is just starting to work, why change it now? Subpart C pay, sections 9901.301 to 9901.373 Defense Department employees should continue to recieve the same annual pay and across the board adjustment that other GS/FWS workers recieve. The individual pay increases for performance in the regulations should include guaranteed percentages so employees will understand the pay system and what their pay increase will be depending on their performance. Subpart D Performance Management -9901.401 to 9901.409 To ensure fairness and accuracy, Defense Department employees should be able to appeal any performance rating to an independant grievance and arbitration process as they can do now. Subpart E Staffing and Employment -9901.501 to 9901.516 The proposed regulations would replace longstanding provisions on hiring found in 5 U.S.C. Chapters 31 and 33 with unpublished procedures that will be prescribed at some future date through implementing issuances. Using this approach will allow the Defense Department to arbitrarily develop and administer new rules on staffing and employment that have not been available for public comment. This is especially troubling given the proposal to engage in non-citizen hiring to positions within NSPS. Our national security would surely be put at risk if Defense Department managers were able to exercise such hiring flexibilities. Subpart I Labor-Management Relations- 9901.901 to 9901.929 The labor-management law that has governed the employees' right to organize and engage in collective bargaining has worked well since 1978. There is no compelling reason to take away most of the collective bargaining rights or grievance rights The Department of Defense should not create a "company-dominated dispute board." Any disputed board should jointly be selected by management and the union. Annual Pay Raises Under the General Schedule and FWS, employee pay was clear. It was funded by Congress and could not be taken away. However, NSPS will take away this certainly. Salaries and bonouses are funded by DoD. In the past-as recently as just last year- DoD did not fund its awards program. Given agencey's record on this, how can employees feel confident that our salaries and bounses will be funded in the future? Friend of the Supervisor Pay System With the new patronage pay system, DoD calls "pay for performance," the amount of a worker's salary will depend almost completely on personal judgement 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 guarentee that even the best workers will recieve 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 be afraid to speak out about harassment, violations of the law, and work place safety problems. Furthuremore, there will be no impartial appeal system to assure that everyone is treated fairly. Thanks for listening, please take all of this into consideration. Sincerely, Glenn Kirby