COURT SETS CAP FOR MAXHR BRIEFS

Source: Fednews-online
December 22, 2005

After months of uncertainty, the fate of the Department of Homeland Security’s MaxHR personnel system may soon be known.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia set a Feb. 27 deadline for filing appeals in the ongoing case.

On Nov. 23, DHS filed a motion to expedite its appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer’s ruling that barred the Department from implementing its proposed personnel system. Within days, the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union filed an opposition to the motion.

DHS had intended to begin implementing MaxHR’s performance management components on Aug. 15, before Collyer deemed sections of the personnel system illegal.

The Department then filed a motion in late August to narrow Collyer’s decision. NTEU and AFGE countered with a motion to block the DHS motion in early September.

On Sept. 9, DHS circulated an internal memo stating MaxHR’s performance-based pay components would be delayed up to 12 months.

DHS was slated to move headquarters, Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection, Science and Technology, Emergency Preparedness and Response and Federal Law Enforcement Training Center employees into MaxHR’s pay-for-performance system by January 2006, but will not do so until January 2007. MaxHR’s initial pay changes have also been bumped from January 2007 to January 2008.

MaxHR’s pay-for-performance components are separate from the performance management components.

For more information about the continuing legal saga, see DHS FILES NOTICE OF APPEAL RULING ON MAXHR, UNIONS ANNOUNCE THEIR CROSS APPEAL at
http://www.fednews-online.com/view_publication.aspx?publicationId=8607