DoD to Expand, Revise NSPS

By: fedweek

DoD has said it will add another 90,000 employees to the national security personnel during the fiscal year that begins October 1, which would bring the total to above 200,000. DoD hasn’t announced a breakdown of covered positions, but it’s expected that the first segment will begin this fall with the rest starting next spring. DoD most likely will follow its practice of bringing only employees not eligible for union representation into the system, since the labor relations provisions of NSPS remain subject to a lawsuit that could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court within the next two months. Meanwhile, DoD has announced that for those already under NSPS, more than 110,000, January 2008 raises will be split according to local market supplements, pay band adjustments and performance segments as called for under NSPS rules. That effectively will put more of the available money into performance-based pay at the expense of across-the-board type adjustments. The roughly 12,000 employees who were in NSPS long enough to have their January 2007 raises in almost all cases received the same across the board raises that GS employees in general get, plus performance-based pay.