Federal Daily - June 29, 2009

Unions Ask Task Group to Urge End to NSPS

Labor leaders on June 25 urged the Defense Business Board Task Group—which is reviewing the viability and fairness of the DoD’s National Security Personnel System (NSPS)—to call for the pay-for-performance program’s termination. One of those leaders, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President John Gage, asked that the task force recommend that all 211,000 DoD civilian employees be taken off NSPS and returned to the General Schedule pay system. The meeting was the task group’s first public hearing in its effort to develop recommendations to be delivered this fall. As union leaders testified inside the Arlington, Va, hotel where the panel was held, civilian defense employees protested against NSPS outside the hotel. “Wherever we have talked to federal employees, they have been unanimous in their rejection of NSPS,” Gage said. “No matter how the question is framed and no matter which version of pay-for-performance is involved, the message is the same.” He also complained that NSPS unfairly awarded the top raises to those in the highest pay brackets. DoD has halted NSPS conversions until the task group finishes its report, however it is still placing some new hires into the system. Government Accountability Office (GAO) officials reported that although DoD has taken some steps to implement internal safeguards, more monitoring is needed to help ensure that DoD’s actions are effective as implementation proceeds. For example, NSPS does not provide employees with adequate transparency over their rating results because it does not require commands or pay pools to publish their respective ratings, GAO noted. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=1013 or www.gao.gov/new.items/d09840.pdf.

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Lawmakers Call for More Transparency in FEHBP Drug Pricing

Lawmakers last week called for more transparency in the way that prescription drugs are priced for enrollees in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). At a June 24 hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Federal Workforce Subcommittee, Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, D-Mass., panel chairman, said that lawmakers were concerned over the lack of clarity in the pricing of medications for FEHBP members. “The lack of transparency in the program’s drug pricing and contractual arrangements hinders our ability to determine whether our federal employees are receiving the best value for their prescriptions,” said Lynch. “It would appear that massive savings could be realized by moving to a more transparent and competitive system.” He pointed to research that shows that prices for prescription drugs are much lower under all of the other federal benefit programs—such as the one operated by the Department of Veteran Affairs—which have the authority to negotiate or prescribe drug prices. Susan Hayes, a principal of the consulting firm Pharmacy Outcomes Specialists, testified that drug pricing through the federal pharmacy benefit managers system is overly complex. Price calculations are “hidden to purchasers, designed to confuse plan sponsors and in turn disadvantages plan sponsors in the negotiation process,” she said. Lynch said he wants the Office of Personnel Management to conduct an in-depth analysis of the FEHBP pricing system. To see more, go to: http://federalworkforce.oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2516.

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OSHA to Continue Focus on Federal Worker Safety

The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week announced that it will continue a nationwide program that emphasizes workplace safety and health for federal workers and contractors. The Federal Agency Targeting Inspection Program, developed in 2008 in response to a Government Accountability Office audit report, targets federal agencies which have experienced a large number of lost-time injuries based on data from their annual Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs reports. OSHA said the program will extend through 2009 after field inspectors last year found multiple OSHA violations during 109 inspections of high-hazard federal worksites. “OSHA’s mission of protecting worker safety doesn’t begin and end with private industry,” said acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab. “It also extends to those who work in federal agencies.” To see more, go to: www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/osha/osha20090718.htm.

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