Outlook for Future Cloudy

The judge’s decision clouds the outlook for the startup of other parts of NSPS. On its face, the order does not prevent DoD from going forward with the phase-in of other key elements of the system, including changes in job classification, pay systems, reduction in force rights, hiring procedures and other changes that are to be implemented in stages under DoD’s schedule. However, the labor-management provisions—particularly union bargaining rights and the department’s flexibility in overriding contract provisions—are intertwined with many of those policies. In a similar situation involving the Department of Homeland Security, DHS has delayed its entire set of personnel changes even though a judge’s decision there similarly addressed only the labor-management and appeals rights provisions. The court’s ruling also left the door open for the Pentagon to argue that it can “sever” the parts of the labor-management rules that the judge found objectionable and go ahead with the other parts. However, the decision indicated that DoD would have to clear a high legal bar for that to happen.