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Competitive Sourcing (A-76) National Security Personnel System (NSPS)

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NSPS Message

Years of hard work by NFFE members and our brothers and sisters in fellow unions finally paid off this year.

On January 28^th, President Bush signed into law the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill included language which made sweeping changes to the National Security Personnel System (NSPS).

Significant victories in the bill include the restoration of collective bargaining and employee appeal rights for Defense employees. Blue-collar workers are also now exempt from the system. The law left in place the Defense Department’s authority to implement a pay-for-performance system; however, the measure would guarantee that NSPS employees get 60 percent of the annual pay raise given to most federal workers if they perform at a satisfactory level or above. Only the remaining 40 percent of the pay adjustment, which is set annually by Congress, would go toward performance pay.

While the new version of the system is still far from perfect, it is a vast improvement from the previous forms. By relentlessly working together to make our voices heard, we ensured that many of Defense workers’ rights will be maintained under this new system. This is a significant victory for Defense workers, for NFFE, and for the entire labor movement. Thank you to everyone who stepped up to the plate and helped bring about this important change.

Richard N. Brown

Senate Adopts Significant A-76 Reform

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Randy Erwin, NFFE Legislative Director

Phone: (202) 257-0948

Washington, DC – Late yesterday, the United States Senate adopted an amendment to the fiscal year 2008 Defense Authorization bill that would make several revisions to the A-76 public-private competition process. Together, these changes would do much to level the playing field for federal workers when competing against private contractors for the same government work. The amendment was sponsored by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and had 10 cosponsors. The amendment passed with a 51-44 vote. The Senate later passed the Defense Authorization bill as amended by a 92-3 vote.

The A-76 amendment would do the following:

Exclude health care and retirement costs from the A-76 cost comparison process.
Eliminate automatic recompetition of work performed by federal employees under A-76.
Establish equitable appeal rights for all federal employees.
Eliminate OMB outsourcing quotas.
Require the establishment of guidance to allow federal employees to compete for new work.
Establish in law a competition requirement for non-DoD agencies which is identical to what is permanent law for DoD.

“The rules governing A-76 have not been fair to federal workers,” said NFFE President Richard N. Brown. “These changes will do a lot to eliminate some of the egregious advantages contractors enjoy when competing against federal employees for government work.”

“We are happy to see that the Senate did not back away from addressing this important issue,” said Brown. “When contractors are given an unfair advantage over federal workers, it is the tax-payers that pay for it in the end. The playing field should be level.”

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