May 1 , 2006

Defense Workers Unions Seek to Broaden Ruling Against Proposed DoD Personnel System


WASHINGTON-The American Federation of Government Employees today filed an appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to broaden a recent victory against proposed personnel rules for the Department of Defense.  AFGE, as part of a coalition of unions called the United DoD Workers Coalition, won a major victory against DoD's National Security Personnel System (NSPS) on Feb. 27 when U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled major portions of the personnel rules to be illegal. 

Judge Sullivan's ruling effectively gutted the labor relations and employee appeal provisions of NSPS, prompting DoD to appeal the decision.  AFGE's action tomorrow is a counter appeal to DoD's appeal. 

"Judge Sullivan issued a fair decision affirming the basic labor law principle that a union contract binds all parties to it.  This principle is essential for labor contracts to be enforceable.  However there are provisions of NSPS that are allowed to stand under the decision.  DoD's appeal provides an opportunity for a judicial reconsideration of those remaining provisions," said AFGE Assistant General Counsel Joe Goldberg.

AFGE will challenge a provision of NSPS limiting the issues subject to contract negotiations.  AFGE also will argue that DoD did not engage unions in a meaningful consultative process to develop NSPS.

"There were lots of meetings, but the unions received virtually no feedback fom DoD representatives at any of them," said Goldberg.  "Those meetings don't qualify as a consultative process because DoD representatives refused to engage union representatives in any sort of exchange of ideas or meaningful discussion of proposals."

May 31, 2006

Federal workers union president says Supreme Court decision on
whistleblowers sets dangerous precedent AFGE National President Says Union Protection Needed Now More Than Ever to Protect Dedicated Public Servants

WASHINGTON, DC-The president of the nation's largest federal workers union said that the checks and balances of how the government serves the public could be severely hampered by a recent Supreme Court decision to restrict whistle blower protections for government employees.  John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees said the decision will make it less likely that serious government problems will be corrected in the future.

"The Bush Administration has sent a clear and chilling message to all government employees: speak out and you'll be out," said Gage. "In these dangerous times, government failings must be brought to light as soon as they are discovered.  Without a doubt this Supreme Court decision may cause many government workers to remain silent about problems they recognize because the risk to their careers, and to their families, may seem too high a price for doing the right thing."

AFGE long has been a strong advocate for government whistleblowers.  In recent years AFGE has represented government employees who spoke out about problems within the Department of Defense, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Prisons, and Social Security Administration.  The problems raised by these whistleblowers pertained to serious issues of interest to the public, from the safety of the U.S. meat supply to inability of federal officials to monitor the communications of known terrorists in prison.

"Without a strong union protecting potential whistleblowers, these employees understand they will have no protection from dismissal, often on bogus charges, should they put the public's interest first by speaking out," said Gage.

 

May 1, 2006

DOD rolls out new personnel system to the first 11K people

BY Wade-Hahn Chan

More than 11,000 Defense Department employees were set to shift to the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) April 30 as part of the first phase of a multitiered pilot program. The employees will be subject to a new pay-for-performance system, a departure from the current General Schedule pay.

“NSPS is essential to the department’s efforts to create an environment in which the Total Force (military personnel, civilian employees and contractors) thinks and operates like one cohesive unit,” state the final regulations of the NSPS ruling published in the Federal Register. NSPS is a pay-for-performance plan that, if fully implemented, would affect more than 650,000 DOD workers.

Spiral 1.1, the name for the initial implementation, is much smaller than originally planned. DOD scaled back and delayed NSPS’ launch in January because of legal challenges. Spiral 1.1 was initially set to cover more than 65,000 employees. Most of the 11,000 workers included are non-union Civilian Human Resources (CHR) employees, who have experience working under alternative pay systems. In late March, the Government Accountability Office declared that it would conduct a six-month comprehensive review of NSPS costs.

DOD received more bad news in February when U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said major portions of NSPS were illegal and violated workers’ rights. That was the result of a lawsuit filed by 13 unions and spearheaded by the American Federation of Government Employees. Unions viewed NSPS’ troubles as a sign that the system was losing momentum. “NSPS is a sinking ship,” said John Gage, AFGE’s national president, in a press release.

The unions believe NSPS violates their rights to collective bargaining and does not provide for proper third-party review through the National Security Labor Relations Board.

By mid-April, DOD appealed the ruling in hopes of bringing the delayed half of NSPS up to speed with the rest of the pilot program.

“We have passed a National Security Personnel System so that we could begin to get a grip on how we manage the Department of Defense and the civilian population, the workforce,” said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a press conference after DOD filed the appeal.
Not wholly satisfied with the unions’ initial victory, AFGE will file a cross-appeal May 1 as Spiral 1.1 launches. “We were almost universally successful in our case before Judge Sullivan, but there were several things we did not prevail on,” said Joe Goldberg, AFGE’s attorney. Goldberg said he did not believe that the ruling addressed DOD’s ability to restrict the course of bargaining.
Despite opposition from unions, DOD is moving forward with NSPS implementation because many portions of the system remain legal. DOD began NSPS training and automation testing in the final week of March and released a Spiral 1.1 training booklet March 30. At a mid-April hearing in Hawaii, human resources employees from the military services and local unions testified before the Senate Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and The District of Columbia Subcommittee about the training and implementation of Spiral 1.1.

Military divisions can better train workers for NSPS and help smooth the transition to the new system with the assistance of CHR employees.

“I believe our employees are well-prepared for NSPS implementation and will soon embrace it as a means to improved performance,” said Jeffrey Wataoka, director of the Navy’s Human Resources Center for the Pacific.

Spiral 1.2, the second phase of the system’s initial deployment, is set to begin in October, and the final phase, Spiral 1.3, is scheduled for January 2007. Spiral 1.2 was originally expected to cover 47,000 employees, and Spiral 1.3 was to cover more than 160,000. The changes to the Spiral 1.1 plan may cause a ripple effect into the later phases, however.

Spiral 2, a second wave of deployment, will also follow an incremented plan during the next few years.