GovernmentExecutive.com

A federal district court on Tuesday extended the Homeland Security Department's deadline for issuing plans to either revise or abandon proposed labor relations rules under a controversial new personnel system.

Judge Rosemary Collyer from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the agency to file a status report no later than Jan. 17, 2008. DHS' original deadline was Tuesday. Department officials alerted the court Monday that they would need an additional six months to provide the report, prompting an extension.

In October 2006, Collyer indicated that she would retain jurisdiction in a case brought by labor unions against DHS' proposed labor relations system, should further litigation arise. She also directed the agency to provide the status report, taking into account the strongly worded ruling against the original proposal.

"We're continuing to weigh our options," said Larry Orluskie, a spokesman for the department. "We've made great progress with our performance management. We're focusing on advances in recruiting, hiring, training and fostering employee morale."

Collyer first ruled against the proposed labor relations system in August 2005, saying it would illegally curtail collective bargaining for employees by giving management the ability to cancel negotiated agreements after the fact. An appeals court upheld that ruling last June, and the department decided against further appeals.

The court decision gives the department the option of either revising or abandoning the labor relations rules.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, on Monday urged DHS to simply drop its effort, rather than wait an additional six months to inform the court of its plans.

"What this agency has tried so far has failed miserably," Kelley said. "The system that senior leaders at DHS are hung up on simply will not accomplish ends that are good for the country, much less for its employees. That is why this system needs to be abandoned in its entirety."

Still, Orluskie said in February that the agency plans to correct all of the problems addressed in the lawsuit, especially as it threw out its former program known as MaxHR and expanded its reforms as part of the new Human Capital Operational Plan. Under the new plan, DHS vowed to move cautiously with reforms, specifically on pay for performance.

While the new plan is slated to involve a 2008 pay-for-performance pilot project focused solely on the employees who work in intelligence, the department is still trying to figure out exactly how and if it will test the pay portions, Orluskie said Wednesday. "We're continuing to work through the issues of the pay pilot," he said.

Lawmakers have been dealing the system some severe funding blows, cutting millions of dollars sought for implementation in preliminary versions of the Homeland Security spending bill. The House provided zero funding for the system for fiscal 2008, while the Senate Appropriations Committee provided 2008 funding of $5 million -- far less than the administration's $71 million request.

COMMENTS

• Regardless what personnel rules and pay system are adopted nothing will equal the General Schedule in fairness. I've known workers who were GS-4-5-6 who came to work every day and did their job. They were dependable, efficient, and fulfilled their job description. What more could you ask of them? Yet they sat in the grade 20 years. Yes, it takes 20 years to go through the 10 steps in the GS pay system. I knew two Supervisors of 10-12 people who retired as GS-6 after 30 years service (it wasn’t lack of education because one of the women was a qualified school teacher). It’s a very sad situation for these women to have to live on a GS-6 retirement in today’s economy. After the women retired their job descriptions were rewritten for the GS-12 level! Yes, there is unfairness in promotions, favoritism, and brown-nosing within the GS pay system. This has to do with upper management not the pay system and will only escalate with the MaxHR/NSPS. MaxHR/NSPS will only increase the back-stabbing, low morale, and discontent which is already evident within DHS. The brown-nosing individuals will be promoted and continue to move leaving many positions without corporate knowledge. All this will be compounded by the retirement of the “Baby Boomers.” Pay for Performance is set up to fail because DHS has already proved it in creating MaxHR/NSPS. The cost has escalated and DHS is requesting more funding which is needed for more urgent issues such as the War, Border Control, Immigration Control, and military program shortages. If the Pay for Performance were in place now DHS would receive “F” for FAILED in creating the MaxHR/NSPS. Save the taxpayers lots of money: Trash the MaxHR/NSPS and leave the General Schedule in place! Civilian Worker Posted July 24, 2007 9:47 AM
• I agree 100% with Colleen Kelley for DHS to drop the entire effort of a new personnel plan. DHS is trying to slip MaxHR past the government workers under the new name NSPS. The MaxHR met with strong opposition from the government workers so DHS changed the name. The lie of DHS being allowed to move civilian workers for “Security” is a falsehood. Civilians are the stability of a department/section because of the constant turnover of military personnel. There is so much dissatisfaction & discontent within DHS, it brings to attention that DHS cannot fix their own personnel problems. Why than would DHS be allowed to change the personnel system for the whole government civilian work force? Is the MaxHR/NSPS just a smoke screen to cover the problems within DHS? I’ve heard about the morale problem within TSA and read about the discontent within the Border Control, will the NSPS make DHS morale and personnel problems worse? DHS has been allowed to swallow up other government departments for the sake of “Security.” Is it possible DHS has bit off more than it can chew? The MaxHR/NSPS has wasted enough taxpayers’ dollars yet is requesting more funds. With the use of all that money and DHS still cannot get it right; it could because it's WRONG. If the MaxHR/NSPS plans were tested by the ”Pay for Performance” it would FAIL miserably. Maybe it’s a good thing the Pay for Performance isn’t in place yet, the DHS personnel working on the MaxHR/NSPS could be looking for new jobs! American Taxpayer Posted July 23, 2007 10:29 AM
• Let's look at what is really happening here. The new personnel system won't really correct the problems with poor performers. What it will do is expand political patronage and favoritism throughout the government. One of the reasons the current personnel system was put into place was to address these types of problems. More to the point, the problem ISN'T that firing bad employees is impossible or even difficult... If management does its job. The problem has been, historically, that management hasn't done the things necessary to get the bad employees out of the government. So, the new rules accomplish what exactly? They curtail employee rights without addressing the real reason that bad employees manage to hang on. You know me Posted July 23, 2007 8:10 AM