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Mixing employees under new, more flexible personnel systems with those still under the traditional civil service rules helps to maintain merit principles in government, two human resources directors said Thursday.

Merit principles included in Title 5 of the U.S. Code, which has governed civil servants for decades, are considered foundations of the bureaucracy. Such principles include open competition for jobs, equal pay for equal work, shields from improper political influence, whistleblower protections and veterans' preference.

Now Congress has granted about half of the federal workforce -- employees of the Homeland Security and Defense departments -- exemptions from Title 5. DHS and the Pentagon are building new personnel systems but Congress also has asked them -- and other agencies with such exemptions -- to maintain the merit principles.

Federal employee unions and some legislators have raised concerns over the possibility that cronyism could increase, in violation of the merit principles, under the new personnel systems.

At a symposium Thursday hosted by the Merit Systems Protection Board -- the quasi-judicial federal agency charged with upholding the merit principles -- two panelists said their agencies' merit principles have been resilient because excepted service employees work alongside those still under Title 5.

Thomas Hogan, deputy assistant secretary for human resources at the Veterans Affairs Department, oversees 80,000 employees who work under Title 38, which provides flexibilities for critical need medical positions. Every manager who oversees Title 38 employees also manages employees on the General Schedule.

"If you're not able to just build upon an embedded culture of merit factors," it would be difficult to maintain them in a nontraditional system, Hogan said.

Hogan said his agency does not have to adhere to one merit principle, though: veterans' preference. Congress decided it was more important for veterans to receive higher quality healthcare than it was for some of them to land jobs at the VA.

Marianne Myles, a director of human resources at the State Department, oversees employees under traditional civil services rules and those in the Foreign Service. She echoed Hogan in her explanation of how she continues to uphold merit principles.

"We have an embedded culture," Myles said. "We work together. So we have civil service support for the foreign service and vice versa."

DHS and the Pentagon are seeking to eventually place almost all of their employees under their new personnel systems, but both departments plan to implement the systems in pieces.

Defense's transition plan uses what the department calls "spirals." The first spiral includes almost 300,000 General Schedule employees and will be implemented in three segments.

The 11,000 employees around the country in Spiral 1.1 will move into the National Security Personnel System on April 30. Spirals 1.2 and 1.3 will follow, though the timing is unsure because of legal complications.

Defense officials plan to implement Spiral 2 in increments over several years. This stage includes the remainder of the civilian workforce. Spiral 3 will include Defense employees already working under different exemptions to the civil service rules.

COMMENTS

• The problem with the civil service personnel system is not the pay structure of pay increases (other than for size). The problem starts the day you are hired because they put you into a job classification the makes no sense and is very difficult if not impossible to change! For example, in the environmental division of the Air Force the job classification is engineer or natural scientist. However, the work the people do is actually management and policy development. However, if you are an outstanding manager or developer of policy you cannot get into the job classification and therefore cannot get into the job. That means to increase in grade I either have to move to some other area (I don't want to) or get my classification changed to engineer to do a job I can do better than those in it now! They are not interested in qualifications for the job -- they are interested in preservation of spots for military people under the civil engineer! Taxpayer Posted May 3, 2006 8:31 AM
• Had it ever been the federal government's intention to hire and promote according to merit principles, it would have committed the process to software many years ago. Computers can do far more complex calculations than that required to determine who is the most qualified for and the most deserving of promotion into a certain position. The software could do it without the biases of the good ole boy system. Such "merit" software could even track employee productivity, education and most of the processes of management. The federal manager's job is defined in great detail to maintain consistency because almost anyone can become one. The job doesn't require much skill. Managers often pass off technical decisions to their subordinates and rate them based on how it turns out for the manager. It's never going to happen though, not even as a support tool. It would prove once and for all just how much personal bias affects the process and how it is undermining the functioning of many federal agencies. In the government, especially the DoD, the most qualified people often do not get the jobs. Robert M. Posted April 24, 2006 8:46 PM
• You bet the VA doesn't have to adhere to "one merit – veterans’ Preference," as Hogan put it. In fact the VA is the worst violator of veterans’ preference laws there ever was and they have gotten away with it for years. That is why I and many other disabled vets have sued them in past years. They could care less how much of their budget goes to lawyers and administrative costs in relation to EEO lawsuits; they will motor on like they always have. One thing Bush has managed to do since taking office is to destroy any laws or regulations that assisted those who fought and served this country. What is more disgraceful is those who we elect to public office to stand by and applaud it. God help those who come home from Iraq thinking their government will provide them assistance in obtaining the employment they need. In reality, they only need to look at the Iowa Workforce Development scandal in Des Moines; Iowa right now. One congressman and one senator are known to have been aware of the problem long ago. Charlie Posted April 20, 2006 9:51 PM