Court expedites appeal of ruling on DHS personnel system

An appeals court has set an expedited schedule for a case involving personnel reforms at the Homeland Security Department.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia established a deadline of Feb. 27 for the filing of all briefs related to the case. At that point, the court will set a date for oral arguments and designate a panel of judges to hear the case.

DHS is appealing an August ruling in which U.S District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Rosemary Collyer found that the department's plan for personnel reforms illegally infringed upon employee collective bargaining rights.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said she is "looking forward to prevailing again in the court of appeals." NTEU is one of several federal employee unions that initiated the lawsuit.

The unions also are appealing aspects of Collyer's ruling.

DHS filed its first brief on Tuesday, NTEU said. The unions have until Jan. 23 to file their principal brief. All replies are due by Feb. 27.

These dates roughly follow a request from the department to expedite the appeals.

Collyer struck down the labor relations portion of DHS' new personnel system, largely because the department planned to retain the authority to override existing collective bargaining agreements. She invited DHS to revise the regulations, but in October, she rejected its changes.

The case does not address the human resources portion of DHS' massive personnel overhaul. The department's plans are to replace the General Schedule with broad, flexible paybands and implement performance- and market-based pay raises. The department is scheduled to award the first wave of performance-based pay raises in January 2008.

The Defense Department, which also is attempting personnel changes, unveiled its final regulations in November. Shortly after, a group of unions filed a lawsuit raising similar issues. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia set a Jan. 24 court date to hear arguments in the case against the Pentagon.