DHS Publishes Draft Personnel Rules

The Department of Homeland Security published in the February 20 Federal Register a draft set of rules seeking to significantly revise how the agency classifies jobs and pays its employees as well as to expand management rights in areas including labor relations and employee appeals. The policies in general follow the department’s previously announced intentions to create a pay banding system where management has greater discretion in setting salaries and employees would get raises according to a formula of occupational, local and performance considerations, while adding new detail in many areas. The rules note that while the pay provisions will be phased in, with only about 8,000 employees affected until late 2005, and that some department employees will remain under their current pay system even after that, other portions of plan will take effect upon finalization of the regs, which could be only a matter of several months.