Less-Ambitious Salary Revision Plan for DHS

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The Bush Administration released an amended and significantly reduced workplace revision plan Feb. 27 for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, after two years of pushing to get that agency to adopt pay-for-performance regulations and other personnel changes.

COLLEEN M. KELLEY: Opposition pays off.

The downgraded plan would involve just a few hundred DHS employees in testing a pilot promotion and wage-hike system that could eventually do away with collectively-bargained step and grade increases for Federal workers.

Bypassed Unions

The pilot program grew out of a proposed DHS personnel system called MaxHR, which White House officials said would make it easier to reward and promote deserving employees. MaxHR gave managers more latitude in handing out punishments to workers and allowed supervisors to bypass union negotiations when introducing new technology to the workplace. It also allowed managers to shift employees at will to meet staffing needs.

The Bush Administration had hoped to have its new performance-based personnel system in place in most major DHS components by 2008, with an eye toward making it the standard system to be used in all Federal departments in the near future.

The leader of the union representing thousands of front-line border security employees said the decision to substantially revise the DHS timetable for implementing a pay-for-performance system had two important implications for the agency and its workers.

Union: 'A Victory'

"It is a victory for DHS employees in that at least over the next two years they will be operating under a pay system they both understand and trust," said National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley in a written statement.

Also, she added, going to a small pilot program in 2008 instead of full implementation "would provide another window of opportunity for this agency to work with employees and their representatives on the serious mission and morale issues that are [affecting] the department, including real-world workplace problems such as inadequate training, staffing and resources."

DHS employees recently registered their disillusionment with MaxHR in responses to a survey conducted by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Workers ranked DHS at or near the bottom in key categories among agencies, and more than 41 percent of respondents reported dissatisfaction when asked: "How satisfied are you with the policies and practices of your senior leaders?"

'Regressive Rules'

NTEU led a successful Federal court suit to prevent implementation of what it termed "regressive" labor relations rules by DHS and has successfully lobbied Congress to reduce funding for the MaxHR personnel system.

In its fiscal 2007 budget proposal, the Bush Administration sought $71.4 million for implementation of the new system, including the pay segment of it. After many workers, unions and elected officials expressed their concerns, however, Congress only approved $20 million for the system.

DHS initially planned to move a first group of employees from agency headquarters, law-enforcement training centers, the information analysis and infrastructure protection, and emergency preparedness and response directorates to pay-for-performance at the start of 2006.

In 2007 it hoped to move Secret Service and Coast Guard workers to the new program. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services were to transfer in early 2008.

But a Federal judge in August 2005, responding to legal challenges brought by the NTEU and other unions, ruled that DHS couldn't implement parts of MaxHR because it infringed on employees' collective bargaining rights.

A DHS spokesman told reporters that the agency still wants to bring its 110,000 employees into the new personnel program if the pilot proves successful.

He said that DHS will add more elements to the reform plan in an attempt to address the morale problem that was revealed by the OPM survey. He said the agency will focus on hiring a talented and diverse work force, instituting a departmentwide culture of performance, and creating a system to develop new leaders.