Federal Managers and the NSPS Transition

The Federal Managers Association has long been concerned about some aspects of the transition of hundreds of thousands of employees out of the National Security Personnel System and back into the General Schedule system. Today, they outlined some of those older concerns--and some new ones, in a position paper on the subject. Among the things they're worried about:

-Does putting high-performing employees on pay retention amount to docking their pay, contrary to Congress's intentions in the rollback legislation? Employees whose salaries under NSPS rose higher than step 10 in the General Schedule grade to which they're reassigned may get lower raises than their peers, something FMA president Darryl Perkinson has said "is "not a very good motivator for people who want to stay in civil service."

-How will managers and supervisors be compensated and rewarded for handling the transition back? Congress may have made the transition law, and the NSPS Transition Office under John James, Jr. may be designing the broad policies governing the change, but it's managers and supervisors who will have to implement those changes.

-In which order will the transition take place? FMA argues that employees who were moved into the system last should be moved out of it first, as their pay will be least affected and they'll be least acculturated to NSPS. The employees who have been in the system longest will require more transition, training, and evaluation, and Defense should take the time to make their transition as smooth as possible, FMA says.

-What's going to happen to employes who came into NSPS from other personnel demonstration projects? To my mind, this is one of the biggest questions, and when I spoke to Defense officials earlier in the week, they said the question of what will happen to those workers is one they're still considering.