Return to Article: Defense labor relations reforms waiting on Congress
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35675
Stop with the complaints. Federal employees have better benefits than most industries can offer. As a taxpayer who works side by side with civil servants, I can say I am happy people will NEED to PROVE they are worth the money. Besides this is not a system of who is better than who but who performs based on their specific objectives. That is not a cut throat system, that is proving you are worth what you claim you are worth. If supervisors do their jobs, then the system will work. Welcome to the REAL world.
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34515
Why it is that such extreme personalities like Rumsfeld have such sudden power over well-established systems like the GS pay system.
Such fundamental systems should not be so impulsively changed by one very questionable individual on a whim of personal contempt for virtually everyone over whom he has a potential eight-year reign.
Our government should have better safeguards against the sudden appearance of so politically motivated an unreliable sociopath like Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld has only succeeded in making many people extremely anxious, and one can only wonder what next, with nuts like him appearing in our government so suddenly, with no safeguards to slow his type from consuming so much time and resources away from important day-to-day missions.
His response to every criticism was his unctuous, unsettling lack of concern for not only government personnel, but also, worse, the lives of so many dead soldiers.
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33883
I was a China Laker when Mary Lacey created NSPS version 1.0 and was called the "Demonstration Program". Her 1997 report to the Secretaries on the Demo Program lied. Yes, she was deceptive and misleading then just as now. The DP system should have been called the GM-15 and SES enrichment program. Setting that part aside what actually occurred was that a very high-tech Military Base with massive requirements for Experienced Engineers and Scientists saw our employee retention rate drop to almost ZERO in the third year of the program (annual 98% loss rate for new hires). This was a huge change from the previous five and ten year periods of 7% to 15% loss rate. Like the old Demo Program NSPS is not about retention. If you cannot retain your employees what good is the NSPS for allegedly making it easier to recruit? This seasoned Engineer has been-there-done-that and was screwed royally by Mary Lacey the first time. I too am leaving the DoD and taking my experience to a contractor where the annual COLA is not 1.75% or even 3.5% but 7%+ with real bonus dollars and not a piddling $500 take home.
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33852
I have to second everyone's comment on this message board and hopefully get them to my Congressperson ASAP. Let me first start with my impression with the self-assessment process. In order for the employee to get high marks on the appraisal he must document on a near daily basis any event that indicates high performance on his objectives. Has anyone thought to assess the time involved to accomplish this task? More than you want to know, but what results is a need for creative writing skills. That's right, another chance to inflate the system. NSPS has created a system in which an employee (if he has the talent) will write a self-assessment that makes him walk on water. It is then up to the supervisor to negate these efforts to keep the marks at a 3. A contentious road we must travel and to what end? Secondly I must ask what business would use this model to appraise their employees. If I was in the private sector and required to track my progress through out the year and spend the numerous hours it takes to write the self-assessments, to what expense account would I bill my hours? I can assure you the financial officer of the company would be hard put to justify company funds for this expenditure!
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33785
The National Security Personnel System (NSPS) has not met its objective to be a pay for performance system. Since the Non-Bargaining Unit employees have entered the system at Wright-Patterson AFB supervisors have been frustrated with the implementation of the program. The Aeronautical Systems Center is already in a funding shortfall for FY07 and FY08 and the NSPS system prohibits giving time off awards as part of the appraisal cycle. In addition, quotas are now being set for how employees can be rated. We are being told that by rating folks as 4 or 5 it depletes the share value and thus everyone gets less. Yet if you rate someone a 3 (a valued employee) they will not even receive what GS employees will receive from the standard cost of living increase. This system will directly impact the economy and ensure that the government cannot attract the best and brightest people to support the war-fighters.
This system allows supervisors to select employees and authorize them a pay increase without an interview process. Selections can be limited to who you know and will prohibit career broadening opportunities and fair labor practices.
I encourage Congress to block funding or fully repeal the system. NSPS is hurting the workforce, encouraging new recruits and current employees to seek work in industry rather than government, and has severely decreased moral and effectiveness.
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33680
Don't forget if you are not part of a Union you will not get the full pay raise for '08 and possible '09. DoD is going forward with implementing NSPS to those who are not represented by a Union. Good Luck! Depending on negotiations with the Union it is quite possible that those benefits will only be made available to the Union Members. Is this likely?
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33658
NSPS is the reason I left DoD after working for them since I was 18, I am now 44. Why did i leave? precisley what is happening. Less PAY! Pure and simple NSPS isnt about performance its about cutting salaries. Right now DoD is feeling the pinch as their best and brightest jump ship. Its easy for us top performers to get work elsewhere and go from a YA2 12 equivelant to a GS 13 outside NSPS and get a whole lot more than 5% allowed ONCE in my whole time in a grade? from then on i could only latteral, no pay raises. But i am sure they wont mind heaping more and more work on those employees. DoD will soon be left with only those who cat move or were not able to get out. poor performeres and malcontents. Way to go rumsfeld now your little plan is more mobile. Way to go Bush you made the employees who defend this country hate what they do. I hope you sleep good at night. DoD has become the Walmart of government.
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33656
"We want the ability to move forward and not bargain 1,500 times every once in a while on some things," Lacey said. "There's not a lot of gain in having 1,500 different versions of a system."
Ms Lacey: Do you realize that NSPS will result in 1,500 + different "secret" pay scales?
BTW, most of my colleagues are reporting that job objectives are the same ones used under the existing appraisal system--subjective and basically unmeasurable---and, they can be rated in either direction--at the discretion of the supervisor.
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33609
Have you seen in Fedweek the latest on NSPS? The people that are now under this system (mostly management) will only be getting half of the raise we will get in 2008. The other half will go to the performance award pool. Talk about a moral builder! Joe suck up gets a nice bonus, courtesy of your other half of the raise. I think this is going to give new meaning to going postal.
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33493
So here's a solution for NSPS. Join the union and have the union use the dues to hire lawyers sue the lower level managers every time they screwup. Keep them up to their necks in litigation, negotiation, and arbitration and at some point when the money runs out for just "chosen ones" awards, because they had to spend it to defend themselves, this fiasco might just stop.
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33490
NSPS was poorly thought out, implemented poorly and remains a horribly complex system. The brain-children behind this disaster are mostly gone from DoD, so let's get rid of this piece of junk and go back to the tried and true GS system. Make reasonable and thoughtful adjustments to our real personnel system and we'll get there together.
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33484
The very threads that make this system desirable will be the hardest to implement. Rewarding top performers will take time as the cautious and conservative pay pool managers will trend towards keeping the masses happy by peanut butter spreading the rewards across the first several pay pools. The extra demands on supervisors and employees to manage this appraisal system have wasted millions of tax payers dollars already. Stop the insanity!
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33479
08 increase @ 3.5% but not for 110,000 NSPS folks. 1.75% for "COLA" and 1.75% for performance and awards? What we have is a partially funded initiative that may result in government wages not being competitive except for those not in the NSPS system, i.e. military and SES
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33474
As an Hr Specialist that is currently operating under NSPS I can tell you that this system is full of management "loop holes" to do what they want to whom ever they want. This should be apparent to all with the recent decision about the cost of living increase, they can tell you one thing and then totally do the opposite, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it other than resign! That's it! you have no other recourse, none, zip, zilch, NADDA! So think about this if your manager/supervisor or anyone above them decides that you should be doing something else for less pay, guess what it can, and does happen! You or your supervisor can't even stop it, and if they know what's good for them they won't interfere. You might think I am telling horror stories, or taking this to an extreme; but many times I have seen the results of a manager or a supervisors abuse of an employee with Bargaining Units support and protection outside of NSPS. The employee has a fair chance with a union and most of the time I have seen the employee "made whole" after he/she grieved the sometimes very negative behavior a manager or supervisor has done. But even with a union under NSPS you have NO, I mean NO recourse for a Management directed change to lower grade or reassignment and they can cut your pay 5% or more, and can do this up to 5 times in one year, and guess what? They DO NOT have to justify their decision to anyone, does anyone get this? And don't get me started on the secret, YES SECRET operations of the pay pool process. NSPS sets a totally different tone in the office as well instead of employees working in cooperation and support of one another, they soon come to the understanding that not only do they have to produce, they have to make known the flaws of coworkers work to ensure they get the best rating in their team, if they don't do this they are a fool because their competitors are! That's right their competitors NOT coworkers! Wake up people this system is not conducive to a team working concept, its much like creating a group of used car salesmen all of them sharking after the customers and each other to be top dog.
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33460
The most important issue to remember is the increase is COST OF LIVING not a raise per say. These are two different issues. The Cost of Living increase is to help keep in step with the rising cost of everyday living and must not be connected with NSPS (pay for performance). This should not be confused.
DoD workers will lose about 6.4% of their present salary without the Cost of Living increase and the projected increase of 2.9% in Health Insurance in 2008.
Notify your Congressperson immediately of your displeasure!
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33458
This is another stab at big business/big govt wanting to roll over the employees. The good ol' boys regime that we tried to eliminate for sexual/race/religious reasons many years ago will be fully stocked and ready to hurt our current and future labor force without recourse if this NSPS program is not stopped. I feel as a manager that it is a waste of time and resources. Already we cannot recruit experienced people into our system with NSPS. All we are getting lately are folks with no job, outside people who can negotiate their salary upwards - way above that of the measly 5% offered to govt players in promotions within the bands (bands meant to restrain, not strengthen). I am seeing a dilution of our experienced employees with this new NSPS system. I hope that our learned congressmen will stop this now while we can. It only benefits the inexperienced and the outsiders. Apparently eliminating existing DOD employees and hiring of "temps" to replace them is the preferred goal. Start this now and see the civil service crumble as no one with a shred of loyalty will remain or come into a system that operates like NSPS with its disregard for employees and the govt alike.
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33453
Ms. Lacy's comments sound almost human - "so why would I rush to implement this" BUT we rushed to implement the rest of NSPS without final implementation guidance even being published by the department. Now the department is back-tracking or having to publish supplements because they didn't think of how things work in reality. Of course NSPS looks great on paper, but many ideas don't work at base-level. If the department would have discussed the process with their base level practitioners who have to deal with employees/managers face to face in the first place, we would have a better product but instead we have a "rushed" product that is a pretty presentation, but in reality is fit to reign beside the gold-plated toilet-seats in the Pentagon. I say, let them have it. Oh that's right, most of them are SES or military and NSPS doesn't apply to or affect them. Typical upper mgt decisions.
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33451
As a voter, I am all for Congress taking its time with NSPS implementation. Personally, I do not believe that DoD should be so quick to remove hard-earned bargaining rights. Those rights were established because people were mistreated in the workplace. If DoD removes bargaining rights, then employees who qualify for bargaining unit representation will have little or no voice on their behalf--unless they are rich enough to afford their own lawyers. My personal view is that DoD already banks on "money talks" mentality to mask mistreatment aimed at its non-bargaining unit employees. Why make it worse for everyone else?
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33436
It is perceived that when the Government wants changes to it's treatment of personnel, only the beginning of that change is necessary to cause the whole of it to become a reality in time. Changes made in sync with the ebb and flow of the proposal, overtime will become a reality because the overseeing body that wanted the change in the beginning is always willing to be patient and take what is given them. For every one action, twenty more options may open up. If Fair and Equitable is the goal, NSPS is not the answer.
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33423
We need to keep what make this country different from the rest of the world. Just be better to save the very thing that make us free. Opinion are what make you grow. Don't let a few decide for a large group of people. we deserse good pay,voices heard and certainly to be trated fairly
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33419
Ms Lacey needs to get out of the office and talk to people under NSPS, very few like it and all are loosing money under it. Another way for Govt to openly violate right of employee's.
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33417
"Lacey said that the Pentagon is fully willing to bargain under Chapter 71 rules, which govern labor-management relations for federal employees, though there are certain policies the department would prefer to negotiate on a national level."
This is all the Union was asking for when DOD came up with NSPS. The Unions recognized the waste in resources when negotiating all policies locally, We agreed that some of these issues could and should be negotiated using a national bargaining forum. Ms. Lacey should walk the talk...
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33416
"There's not a lot of gain in having 1,500 different versions of a system."
It is interesting that Ms Lacey should make the above comment.
The pay pools which are the heart of the pay for performance rewards system at the NSPS are essentially set up like individual businesses.
There will basically be as many pay systems as there are pay pools.
Consistency may be easier to achieve if the deliberations and decisions made by the pay pools are meticulously recorded and open to employee review.
In other words pay pools should be 100% transparent otherwise they will evolve into secret organizations.
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33414
Congress should have blocked all funding for NSPS. The costs of switching to this system are pure waste fraud and abuse.
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33406
Sounds to me like Mary Lacey wants to plant the seed of success in the minds of DOD's employees so they quit pushing Congress to end this evil system before it goes any further. I think employees and opponents to NSPS need to continue the hard push to Congress.
After all, Bush has promised a veto of any bill that seeks to minimize or eliminate NSPS. That threat still looms out there in spite of what Mary Lacey says.
And if you think that these voices speak the truth, what about the recent annoucement from the Deputy Secretary of Defense about the 2008 and 2009 pay increases?
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33405
I am under NSPS currently and believe that slowing down implementation of the collective bargaining portion is a good thing to help develop a better system. The TAPES system is broken and meaningless to most users. I welcome a new system to better reward good work however DOD has already misstepped in reversing what was told to the latest enrollees into NSPS that the Pay for Performance raise/bonus would start in 2009. in the 11th hour they decided to move forward and the 20o8 raise will be based on Performance. They (DOD)have not provided any graphic samples of what shares mean or there value. I have not found anyone in the HR field to give me a simple sample of what a base level 3 employee would receive in january if the GS community were to get a 3.5% increase. Too many gaps.
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