NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM

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NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM THE DEFENSE
APPROPRIATIONS ACT
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AFGE Special MeetingsAtlanta, GA December 5-6,
2003Las Vegas, NV December 12-14, 2003

• Phil Kete
• Director, Office of Labor-Management
• Relations, AFGE

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Legislative History

• Introduced by Rumsfeld in April 2003.
• Expectation of walking through Congress
• AFGE got in the way and brought Rummy a long, hot
  summer
• Collins amendment
• It took political blackmail and threats of lost
  work.
• Collins Levin held firm and retained some
  improvements.

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What NSPS Does

• Things NSPS Will Change
• Staffing (hiring, assignment, advancement,
  removal, reduction in force)
• Job classification, pay (including certain
  premium pay), and performance management
  (includes General Accounting Office recommended
  criteria)
• Labor management relations
• Discipline, adverse actions, and appeals

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Who it effects

• NSPS allows the department to apply to 300,000
  employees of the Departments 740,000 employees.
  Can be expanded once the Secretary establishes
  that the system meets the criteria for pay for
  performance.
• Does not impact on employees in current Personnel
  Demonstration Projects (10 specific laboratories)

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Personnel System

• Allows for the creation of a new personnel
  system.
• Allows significant protections to be waived.
• Likely significant changes internal, external
  and on-the-spot hiring, changes in probationary
  periods, RIF retention and processes, assignment
  to theater operations, pay, appeals processes,
  etc.

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Personnel System

• (b) the personnel system is subject to the
  following constraints
• it must be flexible and contemporary.
• it may not waive sections 2301, 2302, any
  law referred to or implementing 2302(b)(1),
  (8), or (9), or any regulation implementing any
  of these laws.
• it must ensure that employees may bargain
  collectively.
• it must include a pay-for-performance
  evaluation system, linking individual pay to
  performance and providing an equitable method for
  appraising and compensating employees.

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Personnel System

• (d) the following provisions of title 5 are
  expressly waivable
• chapters 43, 51, 53, 75 and 77 and
• sections 5541 to 5549, except 5545(b).
• NOTE Chapter 71 is listed as non-waivable, but
  that is changed by subsection (m), below.
  Chapters 31, 33, 34, and 35 are listed as
  non-waivable, but that is changed by subsection
  (k), below).

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Personnel System

• (k) the new personnel system can waive laws
  or regulations regarding qualifications
  requirements for positions, appointments, and
  methods of assigning, reassigning, detailing,
  transferring, or promoting employees.
• the new personnel system can create a new
  reduction in force system, changing the weights
  given to veterans preference, longevity, tenure,
  and managements view of the employees
  performance.

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Requirements in Developmentof a New Personnel
System

• (f) The following project must be used in
  developing the new personnel system (or, later,
  changing it).
• the secretary and director provide the unions
  with a written description of the proposed
  system, including the reasons why it is
  considered necessary
• the unions have 30 days to make
  recommendations
• the secretary and director give the union
  recommendations full and fair consideration
• where the union recommendations are not
  adopted, the secretary and director must so
  inform congress, and meet and confer with the
  unions (with the assistance of the FMCS) for at
  least 30 days in an attempt to reach agreement
• where there are still disagreements, the
  secretary and director can implement managements
  last offer, but only after 30 days notice to
  congress
• the union participation in this system will
  be at the national rather than local level.

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Pay for Performance

• a pay-for-performance evaluation system to better
  link individual pay to performance, and provide
  and equitable method for appraising and
  compensating employees.
• Under any new DOD pay system, the total DOD
  payroll cannot be less than it would have been
  under the old system. subsection (e).

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New Labor Relations System

• Allows for the creation of a new labor relations
  system notwithstanding (in spite of) Chapter 71.
• Does not change any existing collective
  bargaining agreement at this time.
• Allows for national level collective bargaining
  at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense.
• Agreements reached or not reached through
  bargaining above the level of recognition will
  supercede collective bargaining agreements.

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Labor Relations System

• 4. The new labor relations system must allow for
  a collaborative issue-based approach to
  labor-management relations subsection (m),
  paragraph (2). The system must address the
  unique role that the departments civilian
  workforce plays in supporting the departments
  national security mission subsection (m),
  paragraph (1).
• The new labor relations system may incorporate
  and, in fact, may not abrogate or modify, the
  authority under section (g) to bargain at a level
  above the level of recognition subsection (m),
  paragraph (5).
• The new labor relations system shall provide for
  independent third party review of decisions, but
  the system will determine who the third party
  will be, what the standards for review are, and
  what decisions are reviewable subsection (m),
  paragraph (6).
• The new law does not expand the scope of
  bargaining subsection (m), paragraph (7).
• The new labor relations system is binding on all
  bargaining units, unions, and managers, and can
  supersede existing contracts subsection (m),
  paragraph (8)
• The new labor relations system shall expire on
  November 24, 2009, at which time the provisions
  of chapter 71 will apply, unless the new system
  is extended by law.

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Labor Relations System

• Developed in collaboration with employee
  representatives
• Based on collaborative, issue-based approach to
  labor relations
• Provides for third party review of disputes
• Sunsets in six years (unless extended in law)

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Labor Relations System

• (m) In addition to the overall new personnel
  system, the secretary and director can create a
  new labor relations system for DOD, not bound by
  chapter 71.
• they must follow the same sort of
  collaboration process in creating the labor
  relations system as for creating the overall
  system, except that the first step for creating
  the labor relations system must begin no later
  than January 22, 2004.
• the labor relations system must provide for
  independent third party review of decisions.

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How Bargaining Is Affected

• (g) effective immediately, the Secretary of
  Defense may bargain with a union at an
  organizational level above the level of exclusive
  recognition. Any such bargaining shall
• be binding on all subordinate units of the
  union and the DOD and its subcomponents
• supersede existing contracts
• not be subject to further negotiations at the
  local level
• be subject to third party review.

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Things NSPS Cannot Change

• Merit system principles (including veterans
  preference provisions)
• Rules against prohibited personnel practices
  (political favoritism, nepotism)
• Anti-discrimination laws
• Leave and attendance travel and subsistence
• Pay for political executives, firefighters
• Training
• Health insurance and retirement benefits
• Safety and drug abuse programs

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POSITIVES

• Money from the fund counts as base pay and,
  unlike bonuses, boosts retirement and insurance
  benefits.
• Will not impact on 2004 pay raise.
• Provides 22 days a year for military reservists
  if called to duty overseas. Will receive the
  higher rate of pay (civil service or military).
  This is in addition to their 15 days paid
  military leave.
• Directs agencies to pick up the tab for flexible
  spending accounts up to a maximum of 75 per year.