Other Procedures Affected

The summary also notes that the new law specifies that NSPS must follow certain general federal employment laws even though DoD retains flexibility to set its own regulations in some areas. These general protections include: referral and selection from the top three available candidates must be made for vacancies filled through competitive examination; and details must be limited to 120 days, with extensions limited to 120-day increments. It further notes that the law eliminates the NSPS "collaboration" process for unions to participate in the design and implementation of NSPS for union-represented employees and that unions now have the right to collectively bargaining on those matters. Other notable changes include barring wage grade employees from NSPS and mandating that all employees with a performance rating above unacceptable receive at least 60 percent of the annual GS pay increase as a base salary increase and that they receive locality-based payments mirroring GS locality pay.