March 16—New workforce rules that gut civil service and collective bargaining rights for some 750,000 Department of Defense civilian employees will destroy civilian defense worker morale and threaten national security, AFGE President John Gage told a Senate subcommittee March 15.
Gage and Gregory Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, testified on behalf of the United DOD Workers Coalition (UDWC), a group of 36 unions that represent the vast majority of Defense Department’s civilian employees
Bush Seeks to Impose Similar Rules on Entire Federal Workforce
Unveiled last month, the new workforce rules—called the National Security Personnel System (NSPS)—are patterned closely after the personnel system the Bush administration imposed on 180,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) workers Jan. 26, which slash employees’ bargaining and workplace rights and civil service pay scales.
Bush administration officials say they will seek to impose similar new personnel rules on the entire federal workforce—even though President George W. Bush initially argued that changing the personnel rules for DHS employees was necessary to fight terrorism.
A 30-day public comment period on the rules ended March 16, and according to reports, the Federal Register received thousands of comments, most of which heavily criticized the new rules.
New System ‘a Waste of the Nation’s Resources’
During the hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the Federal Workforce, both union leaders said that the NSPS needlessly reduces employee rights, potentially reduces pay, does not comply with labor management law and amounts to a waste of the nation’s resources.
“The system…will result in a demoralized workforce comprised of employees who know that they have been relegated to second-class citizenship,” Gage testified. “This system will encourage experienced employees to seek employment elsewhere and will deter qualified candidates from considering a career at [the Defense Department]. It will put [the department] at a competitive disadvantage, with consequent impact on its effectiveness. That is the real tragedy.”
Junemann said the Defense Department may have violated a labor relations law that covers federal employees when it failed to involve employee representatives during the development of the NSPS.
“The law requires that employee representatives participate in, not simply be notified of, the development of the system. We ask that the Subcommittee investigate [the department’s] failure to enforce or observe this aspect of the law, ” he said.
He stressed the law “protects the rights of employees to organize, bargain collectively and participate through labor organizations of their own choosing in decisions that affect them.” Junemann says the coalition stressed that, in 2004 when Congress authorized Defense to develop new personnel rules, it intended the new rules retain the worker protections, which the Defense Department proposals attempt to eliminate.
The new rules also limit the authority of the independent Federal Labor Relations Authority, which mediates union-management disputes, including disciplinary actions, dismissals and other workplace issues such as workers’ complaints about management wrongdoing or adverse actions.
“Any new system should, as the law requires, protect the due process rights of employees and provide them with fair treatment,” said Gage. “Employees must have the right to a full and fair hearing of adverse action appeals before an impartial and independent decision maker.”
AFGE, IFPTE and eight other members of the UDWC filed suit in federal court against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Feb. 23. The suit says Rumsfeld violated a 2004 law granting the department authority to make personnel changes only in consultation with the employees’ unions and that the rules were developed instead by “secret working groups.” It asks for an injunction against implementation of the rules.
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