GovernmentExecutive.com

The top official involved in creating a new personnel system for the Pentagon said Tuesday that the department is prepared to appeal a ruling blocking the labor relations portion of the reforms.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England said he was not surprised by Judge Emmet Sullivan's Monday decision that the National Security Personnel System's labor relations plan "fails to ensure even minimal collective bargaining rights."

"We actually expected, anticipated the ruling yesterday," England said. "As a matter of fact, we had worked out a process so we would quickly get to the appeals court . . . I expect we will go to the appeals level."

England was confident about the department's chances of a successful challenge.

"I frankly believe [an appeal] will be sustained and we will continue with the program we have in place, once this goes through the appeals process," he said.

England made his remarks at a conference in Baltimore hosted by the Office of Personnel Management.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, which is representing the Pentagon in this case, said the final determination about filing an appeal has not been made. England said the details are up to Justice.

"It will go through the court system," England said. "Perhaps we'll even modify [NSPS]. We have to wait and see. It's up to the legal side now to make that determination."

England also stressed that the labor relations setback will not affect the human resources side of NSPS, which will replace the General Schedule with broad paybands that enhance flexibility in the areas of hiring and promotions and replace automatic annual raises with ones that are performance-based and sensitive to the economy.

"We will start implementing the HR part of it very shortly," England said. "We're going to move ahead as much as we can while this goes through the court system."

The first group of the 650,000 Defense employees who will eventually fall under NSPS is scheduled to enter the system April 30. Many of the 11,000 employees in the group work in the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters in Washington.

England praised the judicial branch for playing its part in creating a working personnel system.

"It's the way the system works," England said. "The executive branch implements the law . . . now it will go through several levels of review."

England's determination in pushing the appeals process was in keeping with his remarks on the need for personnel reform for Defense.

"The Department of Defense, the way we operate, is the last vestige of communism outside Cuba in the world today," England said. "We do central planning . . . centrally controlled and with many, many layers. Things take a long time . . . to accomplish."

"We're working very, very hard on the NSPS system because [it] is crucially important to us," he continued. "We need systems like this for the simple fact that we need to attract the very best talent we can."

COMMENTS

• Isn't Mr. England the same man who assured employees in DON "we will not implement NSPS until we are ready and not before"? Now it’s push, push, push with a partial system until they can get their appeal through??? Does that sound "ready"? Why doesn't this surprise me one bit. GovExec.com reader Posted March 16, 2006 12:36 PM
• Typical DoD management response -- we expected this bad decision by the courts, however we believe it is a bad decision because it proves us wrong, therefore it cannot be right. How many more millions of my limited federal pension is going to be continued to be wasted by DoD? How long is Congress going to let this continue? How long are federal employees going to let DoD and Congress continue their attacks on federal workers? Mark Gibson Posted March 15, 2006 6:16 PM
• So, let me get this straight. Both DHS and DoD create new personnel systems that illegally restrict workers' rights. These systems are astonishingly similar. Employees and their unions object to them both on essentially the same grounds. These objections are so strong they lead to lawsuits. A federal judge rules the DHS system illegal. DHS is still determined to push the system through, despite knowing that it is illegal. After this ruling, DoD, whose system has the same illegal features, makes no attempt to change anything. A different federal judge rules NSPS illegal. The Deputy Secretary of Defense anticipated this ruling, but made no attempt whatsoever to prevent it. DoD is still determined to push NSPS through, despite knowing that it is illegal. So we have two personnel systems that have been ruled illegal, at least one of which was known to be illegal at the time it was developed, by the admission of none less than the deputy secretary of Defense. No attempt was made to ensure that NSPS was developed in accordance with the law, again by the admission of the deputy secretary of Defense. I conclude from this that Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England is, if not the principal in a federal crime, at least an accessory thereto. Why has he not yet been arrested? He knew a crime was being committed, by someone in his department, and even in the unlikely event that he himself was not involved in committing it, he knew about it, had the power to prevent or report it, and did nothing. GovExec.com reader Posted March 7, 2006 4:11 PM