The Department of Defense has announced it will miss its
scheduled July 1 start date for the first phase of its
National Security Personnel System –Spiral One – and
instead roll it out “later in the fiscal year,” likely to
be September.
Pentagon officials have long maintained that the
implementation of the system would be “event driven”
rather than deadline driven.
DoD plans to work with the Office of Personnel Management
in the mean time to adjust the system’s regulations in
response to public comments and the on-going meet-and-confer
process — it was extended beyond the 30-day minimum time
frame to allow for further consideration but now is over.
In late May, toward the end of the first 30-days of the
meet-and-confer, a group of six employee unions — out of
a total of 42 participating — walked out of the talks,
calling them a “sham.” DoD is at odds with unions over
labor-management relations, collective bargaining and
other provisions that they say strip too many employee
protections.
Revisions to the system are to be published in the
Federal Register later in the summer, likely followed 30
days later with the system’s implementation, provided
instructions are in place and training is under way,
according to defense officials.
Initially, NSPS plans to implement the labor-relations
aspect of the program for 60,000 employees, then later
expand to include 300,000, followed by the implementation
of the performance management system early next year.
Full implementation for all of DoD’s 700,000 civilian
employees is expected to take two to three years.
