GovernmentExecutive.com

Opinions are pouring in during the public comment period for the National Security Personnel System, and the reaction has been mostly skeptical.

Defense officials are in the process of launching NSPS, which will serve as the new personnel system for all Defense Department civilian employees. Under the current proposal, Pentagon officials will do away with the General Schedule pay system, install a pay-for-performance framework, limit collective bargaining opportunities, and loosen employee termination policies.

Union leaders and some lawmakers already have protested the move. A coalition of 10 federal employee unions is suing Defense and the Office of Personnel Management to block the new system. They accuse government officials of ignoring a congressional mandate to include employee input in the overhauled system.

Pentagon officials have said that the new system is essential to transform the department into a flexible and reactive agency. Defense personnel leaders also have said that union input was welcomed before the proposed regulations were released.

The public comment has included organized protest--the NSPS office has counted 707 form letters so far. Of the more than 600 individual letters in the forum, however, there was a large amount of unique opposition to the new system. Some letters expressed caution or fear. Although many writers supported performance pay in concept, a pervasive theme was suspicion that the system would falter in the hands of Defense managers.

"Most civilian managers are not well educated in labor relations and good sound leadership," one employee wrote. "I see this program as a money saver for [Defense] at our expense."

"The focus of the NSPS," said another writer, "seems to be based on the premise that all government personnel covered by this plan work for excellent, forward thinking, unbiased supervisors, an absolutely ridiculous premise."

Several writers said the new system stripped government employees of basic employment protections. One particularly skeptical writer questioned why employees were even taking the time to record their opinions.

"Do you really think that the [Defense] workforce believes that this opportunity to make comment is anything more than show?" the writer asked.

Only a few employees said NSPS would be a much needed change.

COMMENTS

• Currently we in the GS can expect to see a fifteen percent turn in personnel, at a cost of 2,173,576,000 annual. Under the pay banding implementation we can expect to see a one hundred percent turn within ten years at a cost of 16,883,904,000 annual. Pay Banding will incur a substantial loss of both new, and tenured employees, and the Federal Government. The following is a chart of the total costs per employees over a twenty year career. This is the amount each employee will lose, once the current pay entitlements known as step increases are eliminated. > >GS 15 = $314,820.00 GS 14 = 267,624.00 GS 13 = $226,396.00 GS 12 = $190,394.00 GS 11 = $157,667.00 GS 10 = $140,605.00 GS 9$131,329.00 GS 8 = $118,908.00 GS 7 = $107,352.00 GS 6 = 96,660 GS 5 = $86,724 > >I would like to suggest a recruitment and retention bonus be implemented to offset this loss. The amount can be pro rated for tenured employees, and reduced for those who leave before twenty years. > >This bonus would be deposited into the TSP and would be the incentive for current and future employees to stay on board until they would like to retire. arose Posted May 19, 2008 6:39 PM
• Nora, If what you say is true, then why do you work for the government instead of a private company??? Give me a break!!!!! Posted February 14, 2006 5:19 AM
• Budget Analyst has raised a good point. There have been several articles in the last week about people not joining the Army because they don't want to go to Iraq. Redstone Arsenal was unable to get enough suckers to sign up for deployable positions, so they started assigning people to them. I think this is definitely on the agenda of Rummy & Co., forcing us (the captive audience) to go there and anywhere else they feel like sending people for reasons of their own. If you look over the NSPS or a decent anlaysis of it, you see the outlines of a dictatorship, a plantation. This is the last day for NSPS comments. If you haven't turned yours in, hurry. Those bombs over there are real. GovExec.com reader Posted March 16, 2005 3:48 PM