Curious Opinions on Defense Personnel Reform

The Wall Street Journal editorial page weighed in yesterday on Defense civilian personnel reform. Not suprisingly, the page's editors aren't happy with Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision overturning the labor relations aspects of the new system. But their criticism is a little over the top. The editorial offers this summary of the judge's ruling: "The Defense Department can have a new personnel system, but only if it's identical to the old system."

Well, no. The judge only overturned the labor relations portion of the system. The pay-for-performance aspects can go forward--and are. On Monday, Patricia S. Bradshaw, deputy undersecretary of defense for civilian personnel policy, noted that 11,000 DoD civilians will join the new system in late April.

Perhaps it's not surprising that the Journal's editorial page editors didn't quite get the nuances of the judge's decision, considering that they apparently don't fully understand how the current Defense personnel system works. They argue that labor leaders shouldn't be concerned about personnel reforms, because "Defense officials will continue to negotiate with unions over pay and benefits..." No, they won't, because those things aren't subject to collective bargaining now. I'm guessing union officials would be a lot more happy with the personnel reforms if they could bargain over pay in the new system.