Next Phase Announced on NSPS

Some 66,000 employees will be covered under the next phase of the National Security Personnel System, which so far covers only some 11,000 employees. Like the first phase that started in April, “spiral 1.2,” due to begin in October, will involve management and other non-union employees in various components. A federal district judge has blocked certain provisions of NSPS relating to union rights and employee adverse actions and appeals, the primary reason that DoD has started the phase-in with non-union employees. The judge’s decision is pending on appeal, but any decision by the appeals court appears to be many months off—the court has not yet even heard oral arguments—and a recent decision by the same court against similar plans at the Department of Homeland Security could set a strong precedent against the Pentagon. A third phase, “spiral 1.3,” is scheduled to start in January; both spiral 1.2 and 1.3 employees would see their pay affected no earlier than January 2008. A list of the affected components in spiral 1.2 is at http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps/docs/Spiral1.2.pdf