Lawmakers Move to End NSPS

Lawmakers Move to End NSPS

By Rick Maze

June 22, 2009

Source: Federaltimes.com

The House Armed Services Committee took a step last week that could lead to the end of pay-for-performance systems at the Defense Department.

By voice vote and with no dissent, the committee approved an amendment to the 2010 Defense authorization bill that would convert all employees covered under the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) and the Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS) back to the General Schedule in one year unless the Defense Department convinces Congress that two systems are needed. If employees are converted back to the GS system, the legislation includes a provision preventing any reductions in pay.

The measure also would give full annual GS pay raises for people covered by NSPS and DCIPS, repealing a process where some received reduced raises based on evaluations by their supervisors.

The amendment also prohibits newly hired employees from being put into NSPS and DCIPS and prohibits positions from being reclassified for conversion into the systems. 

 The full House is expected to vote on the bill this week.

NSPS took effect in 2006 after a battle with unions and Congress, especially lawmakers representing areas with large bases that employ significant numbers of civilians. The system covers 205,000 employees, fewer than originally planned.

DCIPS started in 1999. The number of employees covered by the system is classified.

NSPS has remained controversial since it began. Unions such as the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) say it is fatally flawed and discriminatory against minority employees. AFGE wants the Pentagon to end NSPS and return employees to the GS system. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers sent lawmakers a letter June 15 supporting the amendment.

Even some Defense managers who feel NSPS is successfully rewarding hard workers and punishing people who underperform say the system needs improvement. Some managers have told Federal Times training is insufficient, salary caps discourage some employees from taking on more responsibility and some supervisors don’t know enough about the employees they rate and reward.

During last year’s campaign, President Barack Obama said he was concerned that NSPS could be discriminatory. He pledged to review the system and alter or repeal it if he found flaws. But Obama wants to eventually put all federal employees under some form of pay-for-performance system, though he has not yet set deadlines or made plans for this.

Federal Times analyses of NSPS results show that for the past two years, white employees and employees of Defense agencies such as Tricare and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service often get higher pay raises than other employees.

The differences in the ratings and rewards handed out in January were narrower than the previous year, but AFGE said the persistent gaps were a “red flag” showing the system is still problematic.

Under pressure from Congress, Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed earlier this year to halt conversions to NSPS, but Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the committee chairman, said he was surprised to learn that new hires were still being placed in NSPS.

“This legislation will prevent any individuals from being added to NSPS until we have an opportunity to analyze the recommendations of the DoD task force charged with reviewing the system,” Skelton said. A Defense Business Board task group reviewing NSPS is expected to issue its recommendations in early July.

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., who sponsored the amendment, said federal workers are owed “an employment system that treats them with the respect they deserve” and NSPS “has received increasingly negative reviews.”

Pay raises are one of the issues. Under NSPS, annual cost-of-living raises for workers are smaller — about 60 percent of raises for GS employees — with the money saved from smaller raises put into a pool to cover costs for performance-based raises and bonuses. The Shea-Porter amendment repeals the raise formula and says that all NSPS employees would get “the full amount” of the cost-of-living raise, largely dismantling the concept of pay-for-performance under the system.