FMA'S KLEMENT DISCUSSES NSPS TRANSITION ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO - April 14, 2010

Klement appears on Your Turn with Mike Causey

Federal Managers Association Government Affairs Director Jessica Klement appeared on Your Turn with Mike Causey to provide updates on the Association's efforts to protect Department of Defense employees transitioning out of the Pentagon's National Security Personnel System (NSPS).

Click here to listen.

Below is an accompanying article that complements Klement's interview.

NSPS transition concerns and FEHBP changes for retirees

By Dorothy Ramienski Internet Editor Federal News Radio

A lot of changes are happening to your pay & benefits, and Senior Correspondent Mike Causey highlighted two very important ones on this week's show.

NSPS Transition

Jessica Klement from the Federal Managers Association said her organization is watching the transition out of the National Security Personnel System carefully.

She explained that part of the problem with NSPS in the first place was implemented too quickly, leaving many unions and other federal employee groups in the dark.

She said she and others at FMA are worried that the same thing might happen during the transition back to the GS system.

"Saying that you're going to convert 75 percent of NSPS employees by October is very alarming to us, because we think a hard look needs to be taken at job classifications. We need to make sure that these folks go back to the GS level [in which] they're performing, not necessarily where their pay says they are. I think you're going to find that some people are doing work far above their General Schedule level."

One of the main concerns of groups like FMA has to do with how NSPS'ers will be put back into the GS system in terms of pay. Since the two operate with different scales, Klement explained that the worry has to do with pay cuts.

Some estimates put the number of feds who will have to deal with this at about 4,000. Klement said that FMA thinks it will be higher.

"Stakeholder groups were not as involved as they should be [in the beginning]. That's definitely been a change with this administration; however, our estimates put the folks who are going to be subject to pay retention far above the 4,000 or 5,000 number mark. We've been finding at most of the places where FMA has chapters at DoD installations, [that] about 20 percent of their NSPS folks are above step 10 of their GS grade. So, we estimate that it is far more than 4,000 employees who are going to be subject to this.

Klement said the FMA has gotten hundreds of emails from feds who are worried they are soon going to have to do the same job for less money.

She added that FMA is continuing to watch the issue carefully and is mainly concerned that feds who are being moved from NSPS to the General Schedule system are classified properly.

The deadline to complete the transition is Jan. 1, 2012.

To view this article in its original format, please visit FederalNewsRadio at: http://federalnewsradio.com/?nid=22&sid=1933168.