Homeland officials must work with employees on civil service rules

The Homeland Security Department's leaders must consult with employee organizations before making any changes to civil service rules for the department's 170,000 employees, under the law creating the new Cabinet-level agency.

In the legislation passed this week, Congress granted the new department's officials broad powers to create new policies on hiring, pay, collective bargaining, performance appraisal, discipline and dispute resolution. Bush administration officials pushed for the powers so they could get rid of standard federal personnel rules that they consider to be overly bureaucratic.

But before adopting any new policies, officials at the new department and at the Office of Personnel Management must follow a process-spelled out in the legislation-to gather employees' views on the changes.

OPM officials will help set up the Homeland Security Department's personnel system.

First, the officials must provide written descriptions of any proposed changes, including the reasons why they are necessary, to representatives of any employees who might be affected.

Then, the officials must give each representative 30 days to review the proposal and make recommendations.

Third, the officials must give the recommendations of those representing employees "full and fair consideration in deciding whether or how to proceed with the proposal," the law says. Then the officials must either accept or reject any recommendations.

If the department's leaders reject any recommendations, they will trigger another period for review. The leaders must notify Congress of their original proposal and the employee representatives' recommendations. Then, for at least 30 days, they have to meet and discuss ways to resolve the differences between the original proposal and the recommendations. If a majority of the employee representatives request an outside mediator, or if the department's officials want one, then the secretary of the department must ask a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to step in.

Proposals that the employee representatives don't challenge and recommendations that the department's leaders accept can be implemented without further review.

If, 30 days after congressional notification and discussions between the two sides begin, the employee representatives and department leaders remain at an impasse, then the secretary of the department can simply implement the original proposal. The secretary has "sole and unreviewable discretion" to decide that further mediation won't help after 30 days. But the secretary has to explain any such cases to Congress.

Once the department makes changes to civil service rules, the leaders of the department must develop a process for keeping employee representatives involved in any further changes.

The law's requirement for consultation echoes the recommendations of civil service observers, who say that the new department will be successful only with employee involvement.

"The real question is whether or not the administration is going to include and involve employees and their representatives in creating a high-performing organization," said Robert Tobias, director of the Institute for Public Policy Implementation at American University in Washington. Tobias was previously president of the National Treasury Employees Union. "I would not design something in isolation."

The law calls on the department's leaders to consult with labor officials for employees who are represented by unions and representatives of employee associations or other nonunion groups for employees who are not represented by unions. For example, federal managers might be represented in discussions by leaders of the Federal Managers Association or the Professional Managers Association.

If more than five employee representatives need to be consulted on a proposal, the law calls on the representatives to select a committee to represent all of them in discussions with the department's leaders.

In a statement issued this week, OPM Director Kay Coles James said the administration will seek out employees' views. "We have been clear that we envisioned an open process allowing employees, through their unions and professional organizations, to have significant input shaping the personnel systems for the department," James said.

The administration has set up a Web site at www.dhs.gov/employees to convey information to employees about the transition to the new department. The site currently provides links to several speeches by administration officials, the administration's original proposal for the department and its homeland security strategy, and a brief "frequently asked questions" section.

Tobias pointed to the Internal Revenue Service as an example of an agency that developed new personnel systems with a great deal of input from employees. After Congress ordered a massive restructuring of the agency in 1998, IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti involved the National Treasury Employees Union, the Professional Managers Association and the Senior Executives Association in coming up with a new performance appraisal system, pay schedules and organizational structure.

"The IRS model is the model that needs to be implemented for success," Tobias said. "That model shows timely decisions being made-and better decisions being made."