NSPS hearing delayed until fall

Source: Federal Times
By MOLLIE ZIEGLER

The Pentagon’s appeal of a federal judge’s decision to block portions of its new personnel system will not proceed until fall at the earliest, according to the program executive officer in charge of the system.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is not expected to get to the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) case before it recesses for summer, Mary Lacey said.

Judge Emmett Sullivan of that same court ordered in February that DoD could not roll out its planned new rules to govern labor-management relations because they would undermine employees’ collective bargaining rights.

“Hopefully we’ll have a hearing this fall,” she said.

Meanwhile, the American Federation of Government Employees, which joined 12 other unions to sue DoD over NSPS, announced it would file its own appeal May 1 of portions of Sullivan’s ruling that the union disagreed with.

The Pentagon was scheduled to convert the first 11,000 civil servants into the new system at midnight on April 30.

The group of Defense agencies to be covered first by NSPS — called Spiral 1.1 — has been going through training for two years, Lacey said. Most Spiral 1.1 agencies have assigned employees and managers to pay pools — the groups in which employee performance is compared for the purpose of performance payouts, she said. Lacey has been traveling across the country to meet with managers and employees enrolled in Spiral 1.1.

“Employees are trained. Supervisors are trained. Leaders are leading. We are good to go,” Lacey said at the Combined Workforce Conference in Falls Church, Va., on April 27.

Employees being transitioned into NSPS will receive the next step increase that would be due them under the old GS system, prorated for the number of pay periods left until they would have normally received that increase. Lacey said the average buy-in was $962.

Employees who receive locality pay will instead receive a local market supplement under NSPS, she said. While the amount will be the same as their locality pay adjustment for now, NSPS planners hope to use local market supplements to help recruit and retain for specific jobs.

At press time, Defense Deputy Secretary Gordon England was slated to approve the final details of the new personnel system on April 28.