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A bipartisan group of senators Wednesday urged the Defense Department to collaborate more with other federal agencies and unions in developing its new personnel system.

Navy Secretary Gordon England was appointed last month to act as a liaison between the Pentagon and federal workers unions during the planned overhaul of the Defense civilian personnel system. In the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill, Congress gave the Pentagon the authority to reshape its human resources system for greater flexibility and efficiency. Union representatives and lawmakers have expressed concerns over many of the proposed changes.

Under the proposed personnel reforms, civilian employees could continue to join unions, but they also could contract with a union to represent them in certain situations for a fee. Union leaders have said that that move would encourage members to drop their full-time membership.

Defense Department managers would also be given the right to waive collective bargaining during national security emergencies, the right to set pay levels and bonuses, and the prerogative to determine performance ratings and buyouts. Consultation between the Pentagon and the unions would be limited to 60 days. If no agreement was reached after that time, the changes proposed by the managers would be put into place. The Defense Labor Relations Board would be able to review the consultation process, but it would not be able to reverse the managerial decisions.

Wednesday's letter called on England to ensure the design process was "fair" and "transparent."

The senators -- Susan Collins, R-Maine; Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Ted Stevens, R-Alaska; George Voinovich, R-Ohio; and John Sununu, R-N.H. -- urged England to study Homeland Security's model and to open the debate to a variety of points of view. The Homeland Security personnel overhaul remains controversial, but lawmakers and union leaders often praise the extensive dialogue that preceded the reform proposals.

Homeland Security "employed a thoughtful and deliberative approach that can be instructive to the Defense Department as it moves forward with a flexible personnel system," the letter said. "While there are differences of opinion on the proposed regulations for the Department of Homeland Security, we believe that the design process produced a better product and more employee acceptance."

The letter also called on England to include the Office of Personnel Management in the process of developing the defense personnel system. According to the senators, Congress intended for OPM to be a full partner in the process. A senior OPM official revealed last month, however, that the Pentagon developed its initial reform proposal without OPM assistance.

During a Senate Armed Services hearing on Tuesday, Levin also accused Pentagon officials of ignoring the will of Congress in the design process.

COMMENTS

• Any manager will be given the right to waive collective bargaining during national security emergencies, the right to set pay levels and bonuses, and the prerogative to determine performance ratings and buyouts!! Who is the idiot thinking up this stuff??!! Rummy? If he had his way, he’d just line up all union officials and call out the firing squad, he and the rest of his kind might as well plan on putting on a pair of coveralls and humping it to get the job done, because this is going to create a mass exodus of persons that are ready to go, probably many that aren’t. This proposal goes way beyond insanity. If they want to kill civil service and contact out every job to their big business buddies, this IS the way to do it. What is the purpose of a Defense Labor Relations Board, who has no authority to overturn the idiotic ideas of moronic managers, and let me tell you, there are plenty of them! The entire process smells of failure. But Rummy doesn't care, he'll be out of his job at the end of the year, and correcting this HUGE mistake will be someone else's problem! Stan Posted March 4, 2004 8:12 AM
• The article makes me laugh. Senators Collins and Levin are asking the Pentagon to do something against DoD's nature- build a consensus with their unions on these issues. Congress should do something the Pentagon understands well. Just issue them an order in an Authorization bill demanding they treat their employees and employee Reps with dignity and respect. The Unions have no leverage- it is not a level playing field- and without a Congressional mandate, DoD will do whatever it pleases. And in this administration, it pleases DoD management to eliminate employee input into its policies and practices. HR Specialist GovExec.com reader Posted March 4, 2004 7:40 AM
• This new proposed system has the same problems as the old system whereby employees were graded from 3 fully succesful to 5 exceeds fully succesful. The system was abused by supervisors and managers who graded employees by personal friendships, racial ethnicity, racial bias, gift giving pandering employees, veterans, and finally by the employee's performance. In my opinion in exactly that order also. When a layoff was imminent the manager's favorites, personal friends, were given level 5 (exceeds fully successful) thereby giving them priority standing in a reduction in force or layoff meaning others with level 4,3,2 or 1 would be laid off first.Of course senority played a part but the performance rating given employees was the tie breaker on who stays and who goes. This new system has the same perils. Whenever unscroupulous, biased, managers have that kind of power their buddies and pals wont go hungry even if they were the poorest performers in reality.T his is a disgusting situation our leaders have gotten us into again. GovExec.com reader Posted March 3, 2004 6:38 PM