Posted on: Monday, April 25, 2005
Pentagon shaking up jobs
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
A proposed regulation would change the way Hawai'i's more than 16,000 Defense Department civil-service employees are hired and promoted, as well as how much they're paid and how they're disciplined.
Pentagon officials and labor leaders have begun meeting over the proposed regulation, which would affect more than 700,000 Defense Department employees, including those in Hawai'i.
"I cannot recall a single issue in my 28 years in Congress that has generated more anxiety among federal workers in Hawai'i," U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, said at an April 14 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
The Pentagon and Office of Personnel Management plan to create the National Security Personnel System, or NSPS, for civilian employees.
The new system would toss out the 15-grade General Schedule and more closely link pay raises to job performance; roll back union rights; and speed employee appeals of disciplinary action, the Washington Post reported.
That would allow the Defense Department to trump existing collective bargaining agreements, and would eliminate negotiation of overtime policy, shift rotation, safety and health programs and flex time, Akaka said.
"By restricting the ability of employees to bring their concerns to the table and essentially eliminating collective bargaining, the changes proposed in NSPS will undermine agency mission, lower employee morale and make the department an employer of last resort," Akaka said.
Unions have always been there for workers, said Charles H. Hao, who has worked at the Pearl Harbor shipyard since 1976. But he and others employed at the shipyard worry that might not continue to be the case.
Hao, a nuclear resource shop planner, has been a union member and nonunion member, and held such jobs as nuclear ship fitter and supervisor in nuclear supply, as well as seeing combat as a Marine in Vietnam.
"The union people try to step in and try to help the working person," said Hao, 60. "We're afraid that bargaining position will be gone and the next time you deal with ... (management), you'll have to get a lawyer. How many of us can afford to get a lawyer?"
As part of the process for creating the new system, Congress set up a minimum 30-day "meet and confer" period between the Pentagon and unions to discuss possible modifications to the proposed regulation before it becomes final, the Post said.
Employees would be converted to the new system in stages. The first, scheduled to be rolled out over an 18-month period beginning as early as July, includes 4,288 civilian employees in Hawai'i from the Navy and Marine Corps, 936 Air Force employees, and 51 Army employees.
Matt Hamilton, president of the Hawai'i Federal Employees Metal Trades Council, said the Pearl Harbor shipyard's 4,300 workers — the state's largest industrial workforce — are slated for changeover in July 2006.
"There's great concern for the entire shipyard, for management and the workers, because it impacts all of us," Hamilton said. The metal trades council is the bargaining unit for 15 labor organizations.
"What it does is it effectively kills collective bargaining, because we won't be able to bargain over 75 percent of the things that we bargain over right now," Hamilton said. "So even though they are not eliminating collective bargaining, they are eliminating what you can talk to them about."
The Navy says the new system will motivate employees and reward success.
"I think it will be positive, but it's going to be a challenge. I think everyone sees that coming," said Chief Sean Hughes, a Pacific Fleet spokesman at Pearl Harbor. "It's going to be a cultural change for the workforce."
Under the new system, pay raises, now driven largely by longevity, would be tied to annual performance evaluations that take into account employee conduct and professional demeanor, the Post said.
The 15-grade General Schedule would be replaced with "pay bands" offering fewer, larger salary ranges.
The Pentagon, which sought greater flexibility to address rapidly changing defense needs, says managers will be able to hire workers more quickly, especially in areas of critical need, although veterans still will have an edge.
Navy Secretary Gordon England said the proposed new personnel system would not remove whistle-blower protection, would not end collective bargaining, and would not result in a loss of civil-service jobs.
"What ... (it) will do is put in place a modern, flexible, human resources management system, appeals system and labor system to replace a cumbersome framework of rules and processes designed for a different time," England said.
Congress paved the way for the new system in 2003 when it gave the Pentagon authority to rewrite the personnel rules. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had argued that the current system is outdated and rewards poor performers as well as strong ones, the Post said.
Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week laid out concerns they expect the Pentagon to address as it creates the new system.
The Post said Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Carl Levin, D-Mich., sharply questioned how the Defense Department proposes to handle employee appeals of "adverse actions," such as firings and demotions. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the armed services chairman, asked why the proposal changes the traditional role of the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears employee appeals, and would permit the Defense Department to overrule the merit board.
Dan Blair, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, said that because a lawsuit has been filed to block the new system, the Justice Department "directed that we say as little as possible on this ... "
The United Department of Defense Workers Coalition, a group of 36 unions, sued on Feb. 22 to halt the labor relations provisions from taking effect.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
