The Bush Administration has asked Congress for the authority
to establish a framework for federal law enforcement
retirement, classification, and basic pay and premium pay
systems, in a report sent from the Office of Personnel
Management, which would play a key administrative role.
The report, required by the Federal Law Enforcement Pay and
Benefits Parity Act of 2003, advocates broad regulatory
authority for OPM to establish and maintain a retirement
benefits structure in consultation with employing agencies
and in concurrence with the Attorney General.
“Federal law enforcement agencies need greater flexibility to
establish pay and benefits systems that are strategically
designed to support mission requirements and that are more
market- and performance-sensitive,” said OPM.
It said the framework is needed to balance the interests of
agencies with the rest of the government, and that the system
would help to avoid the kinds of pay and benefits disparities
that harm morale, increase costs and make it harder to retain
employees.
The report recommends replacing the “outdated general schedule
system – which it says has caused some law enforcement agencies
to use pay and classification flexibilities to the disadvantage
of others – with one similar to those envisioned for Department
of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense National
Security Personnel System.
The National Treasury Employees Union called the proposal “a major
step backward,” criticized it for being based on untested pay for
performance systems, and said it would create a two-tiered
retirement system while removing large numbers of employees
from protections under the civil service laws in title 5 of the
U.S. Code. Lawmakers have faulted the plan for being vague
and subjecting law enforcement pay and benefits to different
political winds every four years.
OPM said the second tier of law enforcement benefits that it
was considering would fall between current law enforcement
officer benefits and regular retirement benefits, and that
the
pay system would cover job evaluation and basic pay systems,
including for premium pay.