Federal Daily - January 5, 2009

NSPS Pay Tables Available

DoD on Dec. 30 posted pay tables for the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). The system’s performance-based payouts can include a combination of several elements, including base salary increases, bonuses and local market supplements. Hikes in 2009 include a general salary increase of 1.74 percent, which is an across-the-board salary adjustment for employees rated “2” or higher under the NSPS performance management system. The hike is equal to about 60 percent of the General Schedule increase. About 200,000 employees were scheduled to be under NSPS at the end of 2008. To see the pay tables, go to: www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps/paytables.html.

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Military Pay Tables Posted on Web

DoD has posted its 2009 military pay tables. Active-duty military personnel will draw an across-the-board 3.9 percent pay raise beginning Jan. 1. An Army sergeant with five years of service would see an increase in monthly base salary of about $88 dollars; an Army captain with nine years of service would see about a $200-a-month hike. The 2009 military pay tables can be found at: www.dfas.mil/militarypay/militarypaytables/2009MilitaryPayTables.pdf.

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NTEU Reiterates Opposition to Growing Use of FCIP

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) applauded a recent court victory for a disabled veteran who claimed he was denied his veteran’s preference rights when he was passed over for a DoD job—but the union expressed disappointment that the court did not broach another key issue raised in the case. In a decision announced on Dec. 24, a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the veteran’s preference rights of Stephen Gingery, and sent his case back to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) for readjudication. MSPB previously had ruled against Gingery, finding that DoD had not violated Gingery’s veteran’s rights when it filled two auditor jobs with Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP) applicants. While praising the veteran’s preference decision, NTEU President Colleen Kelley said the court failed to address the key question of whether FCIP is a valid exception to merit-based hiring. While FCIP originally was intended as a limited-use program to provide training and development internships, NTEU said FCIP instead continues to be used by agencies to get around statutorily-mandated competitive examination and selection requirements. “The FCIP hits hard in NTEU-represented workplaces,” Kelley said, citing Customs and Border Protection, IRS and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1358.

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