| Home |
Articles | NSPS Pay-for-Performance Could End in 2010
|
NSPS Pay-for-Performance Could End in 2010
June 23, 2009
The House is expected to vote this week on the 2010 defense authorization
bill including an amendment that could mean the end of
the pay-for-performance system within one year -- a change affecting
approximately 200,000 federal employees.
If enacted, the amendment -- which was unanimously approved last
week by the House Armed Services Committee -- would:
- restore full nationwide adjustment to those federal employees working under
National Security Personnel System (NSPS) -- which is currently 60% vs.
100% for General Schedule (GS);
- prohibit new hires from being put into NSPS;
- prohibit any reclassification of positions to NSPS as of June 16, 2009 (DoD
has suspended conversion of current DoD employees from GS into NSPS but is
continuing to place new employees into NSPS), and
- mandate that within one year of enactment the Secretary of Defense shall
convert all NSPS employees back to the General Schedule.
"NSPS has been a failure," said Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H.,
the amendment's sponsor. "The majority of employees in NSPS prefer
the prior system, and numerous studies have shown that the implementation of
NSPS has been plagued by inequities in how employees are compensated and
rated."
The
National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) and other unions
representing employees in DoD have sought to repeal NSPS since it was
first authorized by Congress in 2003.
"Since its
implementation, NSPS has dramatically undermined both the strategic interests of
the DoD and the wellbeing of its workforce," said NFFE National President
Richard N. Brown. ""With worker morale reaching an unprecedented low, the
time has come to abandon this ill-conceived plan, which has wasted billions of
taxpayers' dollars."
Many of the employees in NSPS do not believe that the system rates and
compensates them fairly for their job performance. There has also been
concern that race is still a factor in NSPS to determine
compensation. FederalTimes.com recently produced an interactive
chart which allows readers to use any combination of
demographic criteria to find the average rating, pay raise, bonus and total
payout for different groups in NSPS.
The Debate Continues
While President Obama has previously stated he wanted to review and even
perhaps alter or repeal NSPS, administration officials have also indicated
as recently as May 29 that the White House wants to implement a
pay-for-performance system for all federal employees.
In today's Washington Post, Federal Diary columnist Joe Davison
describes how performance pay for federal employees is still a matter of
debate:
Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag "hinted that
current pay-for-performance systems may not survive the Obama administration
review in their present form. 'The Administration will not support any pay
system that is unfair or has the effect of suppressing wages or discriminating
against employees,' Orszag wrote."
| 
Overview - CSRS
