Finally, On October 28, 2009, after six years of congressional hearings and numerous court fights, President Obama signed the fiscal 2010 Defense Authorization Act with a provision repealing the controversial NSPS pay system.
The law requires the Defense Department to return over 205,000 NSPS employees to their previous pay systems by January 1, 2012. It guarantees that NSPS employees won’t see any pay cuts and that they will receive the full pay hikes given to General Schedule (GS) workers. In addition, it directs DoD to work with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to create a fair, credible and transparent performance appraisal system. It also gives DoD the authority to propose new personnel flexibilities that need to be approved by Congress.
In a statement made by American Federation of Government Employee (AFGE) President John Gage in saying: “NSPS was created in a poisonous atmosphere by ideologues seeking to destroy collective bargaining, federal unions and employee rights and protections.”
“We look forward to working with the department to improve the performance management and hiring systems so that the needs of the taxpayers, war fighters, and employees can all be addressed,” said Gage.
With most of the Country underway to transition back to the GS system, there are a select few that are stubborn and wanting to keep NSPS in place as long as possible such as Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) in Honolulu, Hawaii. They are fighting with clandestine (transparent) moves and meetings, to keep the NSPS system intact without any regard or any consideration to what their federal civilian workforce desires are.
Higher echelons within TAMC contend they are benefiting by using the NSPS system as a recruiting tool! I’m personally of the opinion that they are using it as an exploitation tool to undermine and use their civilian employee populace in an inappropriate manner and advancing their selected chosen few at the expense of all other civilian federal workers.
There is no bargaining force within TAMC for professional employees such as Doctors, Registered Nurses, Social Workers, Pharmacists, et cetera. As a result, and because the way that NSPS is formulated, many injustices are being shoved at all federal workers at TAMC whether they agree with the decision or not by the current Military regime in power – with no recourse for rebuttal by the civilian workforce.
Higher paying jobs are being given away at random or assigned to favorites without consideration to Disabled Veterans Preferences, seniority, experience, et cetera – and without even so much as being advertised or posted that would allow existing senior or other federal employees an opportunity to bid or interview for these positions.
Whether you are in favor or are opposed to the NSPS system, you certainly will have to agree that these types of tactics are simply discriminatory and a total violation of every federal workers rights to Equal Employment Opportunities.
When travelers or contract personnel, with no affiliation within the federal system whatsoever are being given preferential treatment over senior federal employees in filling higher paying positions in transparent or secret meetings, then that is, in my opinion, a violation of my federal rights as I understand the laws. Since the inception of the NSPS system I’ve seen this very issue repeatedly on numerous circumstances over the last three years and as recently as two days ago on March 8, 2010.
Enough is enough, in my opinion. I’m taking the lead and standing for what I believe to be right and seeking out those other professional employees within TAMC that agree with me. I’m asking them to join me in stopping this abuse of power and help defend and preserve our federal rights.
I contend that we collectively petition the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) for an organized labor force with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Union that is home-based in Washington DC here and now to help us with this abuse of power and end this discriminatory NSPS system as quickly as possible.
Do you agree or disagree? Before you answer, seriously consider how this abuse of power may affect you and your families’ future in the forthcoming years. (See the 10 Reasons NSPS is bad for you below)
If you agree then I encourage you to visit www.TAMCUnion.org and show your support by filling out a simple online survey for a “Showing of Interest” – someone will contact you personally to gather your signature to show your support in organizing TAMC’s professional civilian labor force. Your original signature will be forwarded to the Federal Labor Relations Authority to petition authorities for an organized labor force.
To reiterate, if you do support organized labor at TAMC and want to go forward with this move, then you will be required to sign and submit a “Showing of Interest” form such as the one located at www.TAMCUnion.org/Showing.doc . Just simply click on the link or copy and paste the URL into your computers browser to download the Word document and submit it to me at:
Teddie Joe Snodgrass, RN, MBA, MSN
P.O. Box 29600
Honolulu, Hawaii 96820
(808) 265-5533
Joe@HawaiianJoe.net
Please Note: Once again, your original (not copied) signature must appear on the document before it can be submitted to the Federal Labor Relations Authority for consideration.
10 Reasons NSPS Is Bad For You
1. The pay distribution process is not transparent.
2. You are rated by managers who don’t work with you.
3. Your payout is not based on your real performance because ratings are forced into a bell curve.
4. Your share of money is given to somebody else because NSPS is budget neutral.
5. The amount of money put into different pay pools is decided arbitrarily. Even if you are a top performer, you might get less money simply because your pay pool has less money than others.
6. Two employees with identical ratings may not get the same raise and bonus.
7. The secret rating process is lengthy and you end up with only a short time to improve your performance for next year’s payout.
8. Managers can promote whomever they want to higher level duties and authorize a pay raise of up to 5% without competition. You might not even know there’s a new position, let alone compete for it. (Does this sound familiar?)
9. Because of pay caps, you cannot ever reach the top of your pay band, so the extra pay potential is just an illusion – not reality.
10. Your retirement benefits will be smaller because part of your payout each year may be a bonus instead of a raise. Bonuses are not counted toward retirement.
An Equal Employment Opportunity Class-Action Lawsuit is now underway by The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) against the Defense Department after the union's internal analysis revealed widespread pay and ratings discrimination under the Pentagon's controversial National Security Personnel System.
If you are under NSPS and believe you have been discriminated against, I encourage you to join me in this fight and visit and fill out a confidential online survey at: www.StopNSPS.org – you may be eligible for monetary compensation for wrongful injustices.
Contact for the content of this article is as reference herein: Teddie Joe Snodgrass, RN, MBA, MSN
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
