Federal Daily - November 18, 2009

Pay for Performance Alive and Well at TSA

While the National Security Personnel System may be 99 percent dead, pay for performance is alive and well at the Transportation Security Administration, where a new report on merit increases has drawn barbs from one union.

The National Treasury Employees Union says that a newly released TSA payout report shows that most TSA workers will receive only small raises under the agency’s pay-for-performance system, keeping them among the lowest-paid federal workers.

NTEU President Colleen Kelley, a long-time critic of TSA’s Performance Accountability and Standards System, said TSA’s 2009 report on the average distribution of PASS merit pay raises bolsters the union’s argument against the system.

The report shows that 80 percent of the agency’s frontline workforce will receive average merit pay increases of 2 percent or less on salaries that start at $24,000 per year, Kelley said. And half of the workforce will receive a 1 percent salary increase, a one-time performance bonus of $1,000 or less, or no increase at all, Kelley said.
 
“PASS is widely disliked by most of the TSA workforce, who believe they are compensated poorly and treated unfairly, and this year’s results are no exception,” said Kelley in a Nov. 16 statement. “We can strengthen TSA by providing its workers with a pay and performance system that employees can view with clarity and trust.” Kelley repeated her call for TSA to scrap its current pay system.

Under the new administration, NTEU has participated in several talks with TSA management about key issues, including PASS. The union also supports H.R. 1881, which would provide collective bargaining rights to TSA employees, end the PASS system, and move TSA workers to the General Schedule.

To see more, go to: www.nteu.org

:: Back to Top ::

Disability Evaluation Pilot Expands to Six More Sites

DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs on Nov. 16 announced that their joint Disability Evaluation System pilot program will expand to an additional six installations next year.

The sites will be added in January, bringing the total number of military facilities using the pilot to 27. The estimated completion date for the expansion is March 31.

Under the two-year-old demonstration project, DoD and VA initiated a new evaluation process designed to eliminate the duplicative and overlapping disability processes now operated by the two departments. Key features of the DES pilot include one medical examination and a single-sourced disability rating. More than 5,431 servicemembers have participated in the pilot since it was launched in November 2007.

The new locations will be at Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Lewis, Wash.; Fort Riley, Kan.; and Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, Va.

To see more, go to: www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=13126 .

:: Back to Top ::