Senate moves to restrict Defense personnel overhaul

The Senate on Monday approved language that would limit the implementation of a controversial personnel system at the Defense Department, and authorized a 3.5 percent 2008 pay raise for members of the military.

The Senate voted 92-3 in favor of the fiscal 2008 Defense authorization bill, which would repeal the Pentagon's authority to implement the labor relations portions of its National Security Personnel System. The Senate action now moves the measure to conference committee negotiations.

The legislation would permit the Pentagon to continue developing a pay-for-performance system as long as such a system would be consistent with federal labor relations law. The bill also would exclude blue-collar workers from NSPS.

In the 2004 Defense authorization act, Congress granted the department authority to create a human resources system based on the notion that the current system was too rigid and outdated to allow an effective response to modern threats of terrorism.

Federal labor unions have been lobbying the Senate to pass NSPS repeal language, especially after an appeals court in May sided with Defense, ruling that the 2004 law grants the Pentagon the authority to curtail the collective bargaining rights of employees until November 2009. That ruling reversed a district court decision that struck down the labor relations changes.

According to the unions, however, the Senate language on NSPS is much softer than that in the House-passed version of the bill. A coalition of Defense labor unions sent a letter to lawmakers, urging inclusion of the House NSPS reform language and some Senate provisions in the final conference report.

"The DoD workforce has become a political football in an ideological attempt to strip away workers' rights, including the constitutional right to organize," the letter stated. "We are asking you to do nothing more than restore to DoD civilians the rights that they have enjoyed for dozens of years."

The House version of the bill would revoke the Pentagon's authority to reform adverse actions, appeals and labor relations. The bill also would require the department to consider input from unions.

Additionally, the House bill would exempt employees working at the 10 Defense laboratories from NSPS until Oct. 1, 2011. Lab employees have been working under an alternate personnel system called Lab Demo since 1995, but under the 2004 law, the Pentagon would have the authority to bring lab employees into NSPS on Oct. 1, 2008. Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, introduced a bill in April that would make the exemption permanent.

Mary Lacey, program executive officer for NSPS, said last month that the House version of the authorization bill "imposes such burdensome processes for the HR system that it effectively revokes critical flexibilities."

"The House authorization bill requires us to bargain 1,560 times," Lacey said, adding the department would like to have the ability to bargain on a national level for certain policies at the department, such as drug testing, and on the local level for local implementation.

Richard Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said the unions will push conferees to consider the Senate provision that would exempt blue-collar workers from NSPS. "Blue-collar workers have a job to do, and they do it," he said. "Pitting one worker against another for discretionary pay would only cause problems. It could create safety issues and it would likely hurt teamwork, which on many jobs is critical to efficiency."

Meanwhile, the Senate also approved a 3.5 percent pay raise for military members. That figure, which is half a percent higher than the raise proposed by the Bush administration, is equal to the raise already backed by the full House and the Senate Appropriations Committee for federal civilian employees.