What’s on the Menu
- Replacing the General Schedule with a pay banding and pay-for-performance system.
- Creating pay clusters that will reflect private sector pay by profession and by region.
- Denying Merit Systems Protection Board appeals in cases of serious misconduct.
- Limiting the MSPB's authority to reduce other disciplinary penalties.
- Allowing managers to deploy workers, set schedules and use technology without negotiation.
The department plans to introduce the system to about 8,000 Washington headquarters personnel and nonmilitary U.S. Coast Guard workers later this year. Other rank-and-file employees and managers will be phased in during 2005. Ultimately, about 110,000 of DHS' 180,000 employees will fall under the new system.
. . . Who won't be affected
About 70,000 DHS employees will be exempt, including uniformed military personnel, administrative law judges and TSA staff.
POINT/COUNTERPOINT: No Happy Medium
"Under the current system everybody goes up, whether they are successful or not. No more one-size-fits-all."
-Ron Sanders,
Office of Personnel Management
"If this system allows a lot of management discretion [in setting pay] rather than rules and known goals, that could cause angst."
-Colleen Kelley, National Treasury
Employees Union president
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