GovernmentExecutive.com

The Defense Department is planning to transfer an additional 75,000 nonbargaining unit employees to its new pay-for-performance system, according to an online notice posted Wednesday.

The department has been moving its employees to the National Security Personnel System in waves known as spirals. The upcoming round -- Spiral 2 -- will begin this calendar year, with all 75,000 employees transferred to the system by March 2008, Mary Lacey, program executive officer for NSPS, said on Wednesday.

The installment will be split into two waves -- spirals 2.1 and 2.2. The first will have 9,167 Army employees, 8,842 Navy employees and 148 Defense Commissary Agency employees. Spiral 2.1 employees will make the switch by the end of this year, Lacey said.

Spiral 2.2 will occur between January and March of 2008 and will include 18,139 Army employees, 23,029 Navy employees and 15,628 civilians from 13 other parts of the department. Those other organizations include the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Defense Contract Management Agency and the Defense Logistics Agency.

"Organizations have scheduled the date they want to move," Lacey said. "It helps spread the workload and make sure we get all of the training done and all of the classes scheduled properly."

Spiral 2 will bring the total number of employees working under NSPS to 184,159. Spiral 1, which launched in April 2006, has 110,000 employees. Eventually, the system is slated to encompass about 700,000 civilian employees.

Unlike the employees in Spiral 1, those in Spiral 2 will receive the full 2008 governmentwide pay increase, which is expected to be 3.5 percent. The Pentagon announced last month that all Spiral 1 employees will receive half of the 2008 pay increase as an adjustment to their base salary, provided they earn an acceptable performance rating. The other half of the pay boost will be added to performance pay pools and distributed based on quality of work.

Lacey said Spiral 2 employees will receive their first NSPS performance evaluation in September 2008, and the department plans to award performance-based pay increases to the group in 2009. The department has announced plans to allocate the full governmentwide increase to the performance pay pools in 2009.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has delayed moving unionized workers into the system until Congress completes legislation that could defund or repeal portions of NSPS. In May, an appeals court ruled that the department has the authority to limit the collective bargaining rights of its civilian employees through November 2009.

But Lacey said conversion of bargaining unit employees to NSPS is still far off and is largely dependent on the outcome of the pending legislation. The House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2008 Defense authorization bill, which is in conference negotiations, include provisions that would repeal the Pentagon's authority to limit collective bargaining. In August, the House approved a bipartisan spending bill amendment that would block funding for the labor relations aspects of NSPS.

"DoD may not be implementing NSPS for workers who are currently represented by unions, but they may be implementing for those that are eligible to join unions," said Richard Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees. "Two rank-and-file DoD workers who do the same exact job but in different places could have two completely different personnel systems. That makes no sense at all."

COMMENTS

• After busting my butt and exceeding my objectives, I still got a average 3 with 2 shares. What a joke. I got .2% more than the non-NSPS employee. 0.2% for hundreds of OT (own time) hours, working weekends, holidays, during leave, and after hours. This next year I will work only 40 hours a week - no uncompensated OT, no holidays, and ignore messages asking if I can come in (unless I get overtime or comp time). NSPS is like communism. It's great in theory, but doesn't work in real life. It's time to look for a NON-NSPS job. FB Posted January 21, 2008 8:41 AM
• It's time for all government civilians to STRIKE or at least join a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against NSPS. Civilians need to come together and stop NSPS once and for all. This is the most unethical, illegal movement that the government has ever done and NO ONE is doing anything about it. When are civilians going to STAND UP for themselves? Did you ever look at a screw from the top??? It looks like a spiral and their are 75,000 more honest, hardworking government employees that are about to get "spiralled." Sr DOD Execs...you should be ashamed of yourselves. RDANGREDO Posted November 26, 2007 8:57 AM
• Anonymous, My agency, or shall I say former agency since I accepted another position elsewhere, is scheduled to convert as I write this. Knowing what’s in box 37 of your SF-50 is the key to protecting your rights as you pointed out. Also, compare it to earlier SF-50s to see if the data has been changed. That’s what happened to me. Very unethical practice. I questioned it and was told that since I no longer worked at the location, I lost my bargaining unit status. That is a lie. If you’re assigned to an organization(or unit) that has positions in multiple locations, bargaining unit status applies to all employees regardless of location. You can be assigned to a field operating unit and still have bargaining unit status. Even if a position is vacant, it should not be converted to NSPS, if it is in a bargaining unit. There is a process to change one’s bargaining unit status and it’s more complicated than going into the personnel system to manipulate data; it involves the NLRA. It appears that those intent on implementing NSPS regardless of what Ms Lacey has stated, are employing unethical methods like changing data on an employee’s SF-50 to justify their actions. Actions such as these attempt to deny bargaining unit employees of their rights and are unfair labor practices, not to mention misleading the public. Anonymous, you gave great advice when you advised concerned employees to look into things with their local union reps. They need to be aware of what’s going on. Someone is not playing fairly. sd Posted November 9, 2007 11:10 AM