October 28, 2009
Washington, D.C. – Today, President Obama signed the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. Included in the bill was a provision to repeal the controversial National Security Personnel System (NSPS). The bill also contained several provisions impacting retirement benefits for the federal workforce. “We applaud President Obama and Congress for their bold decision to repeal this anti-worker personnel system,” said IAM-NFFE Federal District 1 President William R. Dougan. “This shows that they are seriously committed to building a stronger, more just workplace at DoD.” The NSPS provisions in the bill dictate a repeal of the system, and a conversion of the over 200,000 covered employees back into existing pay systems by January 1, 2012. NSPS workers will be guaranteed the full annual GS pay adjustment over the transitional period. Also included in the Defense Bill are provisions offering employees enrolled in the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) credit for their unused sick leave upon retirement, and extending locality pay to workers stationed outside of the mainland United States – both critical IAM-NFFE priorities.“We are pleased to see that these crucial federal pay and retirement benefits have finally been extended to everyone in the federal workforce,” said Dougan. “These are common sense policies that are going to make a real difference for employee morale and the performance of federal agencies.” The most important development, however, is undoubtedly the demise of NSPS. IAM-NFFE and its sister unions in the federal sector have fought vigorously for over six years to bring an end to the anti-union, anti-worker personnel system. Now that the system is repealed, both federal employees and their unions can breathe a sigh of relief. “We had to pull out all the stops in this NSPS fight because we knew that we were fighting for our very existence,” said Dougan. “NSPS is clearly an unjust system. This system has harbored discriminatory pay practices and it is the least transparent pay system we have ever seen. We knew we had to beat it, and today we finally did. This is a proud day for Defense workers.”
