Pentagon Personnel System Under Attack
The Pentagon has been placed on the defensive over its personnel system.
Two key members of the House Armed Services Committee, its chairman and the readiness subcommittee leader, have urged Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stop moving civilian employees into the department’s controversial National Security Personnel System.
In a Feb. 13 letter, Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) told Gates the personnel system has resulted in “widespread distrust and discontent within the ranks of the hundreds of thousands of dedicated DOD employees.”
NSPS has long had a bulls eye on it back.
Federal employee unions have been trying to kill it at least since the first run of conversions began in April 2006. President Obama showed it little love during the campaign when he said he would “strongly consider a complete repeal” or a substantial overhaul of the system.
Because an administration review of the program will take some time, “we urge you to immediately halt the conversion of any additional employees to NSPS at any level or any location until the administration and Congress can properly address the future of the Department’s personnel system,” the congressmen told Gates.
The Pentagon says it is evaluating their request. But halting the conversions now really wouldn’t mean much since almost all the workers who would be placed under NSPS are already there.
“Congress has specifically excluded the blue collar portion of the workforce from NSPS, and there are no plans to include the bargaining unit employees under NSPS,” said Lt. Col. Les’ Melnyk, a Defense press officer. “So we’re essentially maxed out now at around 205,000, with only about 2,000 non-bargaining white collar employees left to convert this year.”
As the largest pay-for-performance system in the government, NSPS represented the most aggressive attempt by former President Bush to kill the General Schedule -- better known as GS -- classification system. Many federal workers strongly object to the NSPS pay-for-performance model. They don’t trust the employee rating system that affects pay raises. Union leaders have targeted it because they feel it would hold down the wages of workers.
“NSPS is the biggest affront to the federal workforce in modern history, and it is killing morale within the department,” said Richard N. Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees. “The overwhelming majority of Defense workers despise NSPS. Repealing NSPS is our top legislative priority. We want it gone this year.”
Despite union fears about pay under NSPS, figures released this week by the Pentagon show NSPS workers receiving significantly higher pay raises than those in the GS system. The total average salary increase for the NSPS workers was 6.4 percent and with a bonus the average increase jumped to 8.35 percent. The increase for Washington area workers in the GS system was just under 4.8 percent.
But union leaders don’t trust the NSPS figures to give a complete picture anymore than they trust the system as a whole.
“DoD has been trying very hard to make NSPS look better than the GS pay system, and these increases are part of giving that perception,” said Randy Erwin, the National Federation’s legislative director. “Giving big increases to the first people who go under the program is a great way to get high approval. But these kinds of pay increases are unsustainable. In the long-run Defense workers will not fare well under NSPS.”
The Pentagon said the average rating for NSPS workers was 3.46 on a five-point scale. A “1” rating marks “unacceptable” performance and results in no pay increase. Almost 94 percent were rated three or four.
That, however, does not sway the widespread opposition to pay for performance.
“Remember that this is a zero-sum game, because there is no additional money going to increase the overall rate of pay for Defense workers,” Erwin added. “If the managers are getting these huge annual increases, there is not going to be much left for everyone else. We believe the rank-and-file Defense workers will see their pay stagnated considerably under NSPS.”
Federal Employees Retirement System
Last Friday, the Federal Diary said the Federal Employees Retirement System covers employees who joined the government after Dec. 31, 1986. That was based on an Office of Personnel Management statement that says: “Congress created the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) in 1986, and it became effective on January 1, 1987. Since that time, new Federal civilian employees who have retirement coverage are covered by FERS.”
That’s generally true, but since Uncle Sam can’t make anything simple, there are exceptions to that rule, as FERS employees whose employment started before that date have let me know. I don’t want them to feel left out of this conversation, so they are hearby recognized.
Contact Joe Davidson at federaldiary@washpost.com
By
Eric Pianin
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February 19, 2009; 6:15 PM ET
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Posted by: Jan2007 | February 20, 2009 6:53 AM | Report abuse
The NSPS system will never work with the model that is shoved down us DoD workers now. A study could easily show that there are unfair practices when converting. There are unfair practices when rating. And there are REALLY big unfair practices when it comes to pay-out. Just exactly as that one guy has stated, you are seeing lots of big pay-outs right now cause DoD wants to paint a picture of everything is great.
Keep in mind that the pay pool who distributes the pay raises and bonuses are the SAME managers that are rating employees. And when they convene, there is no transparency to what or how they did anything. Employees are basically barred from objections except for the stupid EEO system that has been worthless for decades!
This system is designed for the production or blue collar worker, but they exempt them. how stupid! And how can you justify that a worker exceeds one of their objectives and gets a 4 or 5, when their objective was something like making or scanning copies; but someone with a national security objective don't exceed and gets 3. The whole objective system is flawed and no one cares. We (in a Navy office) were required to place certain objectives in our rating system because management here says so! One of them is called "Values". How can you honestly measure or rate that from 1 Oct to the next 30 Sept? Anything us workers state like this gets a deaf ear.
Mr. President, please repeal this whole NSPS immediately and fire anyone, such as Gates, that refuse or drag their feet. The system is flawed and basically corrupt, or promotes corruption, favoritism and in our case, lots of Nepotism.
Fix the upper and middle management first! There are many that do not know how to manage people! THERE is your biggest problem!
Posted by: darmar40 | February 25, 2009 9:37 AM | Report abuse
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The next time GAO or Congress analyzes the NSPS there is a question they might ask themselves:
All of the managers of the DOD are in the NSPS. This would include those who manage the budget I would think.
Congress supposedly budgets 1.7% of the GS pay for performance bonuses for the GS employees. Does that 1.7% go to the GS, or does it go to the pay pool of the NSPS.
It is just a thought, but wouldn't that help boost the NSPS payout considerably?