Are you getting tired of the rumors and counter-rumors, the spin and counter-spin on the proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS)? So are we. Any federal employee who cares about his or her career needs to take the time to “go right to the source.” Read the NSPS law. Read the NSPS proposed regulations which would implement the policies in that law. They are easy to find and save to some spot where you can read them on your own time, free of distractions.
Here are the “links” you can use to get the NSPS law and the NSPS proposed regulations:
NSPS Law:
http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps/pdf/NSPSLegislation.pdf
NSPS proposed regulations:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/pdf/05-2582.pdf
The Union invites any employee who takes up our invitation to get back in touch with us to tell us whether the following are facts or rumors:
1.
The NSPS law begins
with section 9902(a), which empowers the Secretary of Defense to establish and
change a new personnel system. Until now, the fundamentals of the federal
civil service system have been established and changed by Congress, not
DOD. For all of you folks who think its a great idea that Mr Rumsfeld
should have this power, how are you going to feel if or when Secretary of
Defense Hillary Rodham Clinton scraps his system and puts her own system into
place? And how will you feel 4 years later when Secretary of Defense Karl
Rove scraps her system and puts his own system into place?
2. The next 2 pages of the NSPS law contain sections 9902(b)(3) and
9902(d), which identify the specific laws within title 5 of the U.S. Code that
cannot be waived. They are short. Section 9902(b)(5) is even
shorter. It says that, with the exceptions listed in the other places, every
part of title 5 of the U.S. Code and every government-wide regulation
issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under title 5 of the U.S.
Code may be waived by DOD. Find a copy of title 5 of the U.S. Code.
Or just find the table of contents of title 5 of the U.S. Code. All the
veterans preference laws in Chapters 33 and 35? Waivable. Chapter
43 on employee performance? Waivable. Chapter 53 on basic pay? Waivable.
(And you thought you’d always be a GS employee or a WG employee) Chapter 61 on establishing and changing
basic work weeks and tours of duty?
Waivable. (Yes, that includes
the designation of federal holidays as days off and the requirement for
double-pay if you work on a holiday).
Chapter 63 on annual and sick leave? Waivable. (Yes, that
includes the Family and Medical Leave Act).
Chapter 75 on the right not to be fired except for good cause?
Waivable. Chapter 81 on workers compensation? Waivable.
Chapter 83 on retirement? (Yes, chapter 83 on retirement)
Waivable. Chapters 87 and 89 on life insurance and health
insurance? Waivable. Do you feel better knowing that the proposed
regulations for the new NSPS issued by DOD don’t actually waive all those laws,
or do you feel worse knowing that whether those laws apply to you or don’t
apply to you is now in the hands of each Secretary of Defense, and not
Congress?
3. Spend some time with DOD’s proposed NSPS regulations. Read
them. Forget about everything you’ve heard from any union, employee,
manager or DOD office. Just read them. Let us know if you find
anything that assures that veterans and disabled veterans will not have to
compete with non-veterans in order to stay in their competitive levels in a
RIF. Show us anything in the proposed regulations that guarantees your
pay will be retained if you have to take a lower-graded position in a RIF. Let us know if you find anything that says
what the pay schedules or pay bands are going to be. Let us know if you
find anything that says you will get a cost of living increase every
year. Read on. What do you think of the proposed regulation that
allows your supervisor to reduce your pay by 10 percent in any year when he or
she is dissatisfied with your work? Read on and don’t stop until you
finish it and you understand it. Then tell us what you think.