New Demonstration Project Planned

The National Nuclear Security Administration, an arm of the Energy Department, has drawn up plans to conduct an alternative personnel system demonstration project affecting some 2,000 employees, featuring pay banding, authority for higher entry-level salaries, and pay for performance. OPM has given its approval to the project, which is designed to run for five years, although a public comment and hearing is still required. Details of the planned system and the comment opportunity are in the March 16 Federal Register. Pay banding and pay for performance have been common features of other demonstration projects; the "China Lake" project started at some Navy facilities in the 1980s put the term pay banding in the federal vocabulary.