Myth Busting the Defense Authorization Act

By Emily Jarvis
Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio

October 28th is a day that will be remembered for many federal employees. It's the day President Obama signed into law the Defense Authorization Act, which is full of important provisions for federal employees. Mike Causey and his guess Randy Erwin, the legislative director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, broke down FERS and NSPS provisions, today on Your Turn.

The end of the FERS (Federal Employees Retirement System) flu is here. The FERS flu is the name coined by Causey that explains why employees ready to retire take a lot of sick days so they don't waste their unused sick time.

So here is what we know. None of the provisions in the Defense Authorization Bill will be retroactive. "I wish they were but they are not. All that has to do with the cost of them. Anytime a bill is introduced it gets a score on how much it is going to cost to implement it. That is one of the major things you have to go up against when we are trying to get this passed," said Erwin.

We also know that this plan won't be fully implemented until January 1st 2014. For retirees who want to retire before then they will only receive half of their unused sick time.

"All of this has to do with budget concerns. I mean the economy isn't doing very well right now. It's kind of hard to sell these ideas with all this going on," said Erwin.

The end of the FERS flu wasn't the only major provision for feds in the Defense Authorization Act. The NSPS (National Security Personnel System) also came to an end.

NSPS was branded as a pay for performance system. But may opponents including federal unions say the system lacked transparency and discriminated based on race and gender.

But not everyone is happy about the end of the system. Namely the employees who were in the program and averaged 8.6 percent bonuses and raises.

"They did better because DoD was throwing a lot of money at making NSPS a success," said Erwin.

Both Causey and Erwin agreed that those types of raises were unsustainable in the federal government.

Think of the numbers this way, a federal employee under NSPS earned on average $800 dollars more than General Schedule employees.

So what happens next? Basically the DoD has six months to come up with something else.

So is NSPS really dead? "I would say it's not 100 percent dead until everyone is phased out by the end of 2011 and they have to be done with the complete transition by January 2012," said Erwin.

Most employees will return to the GS system or a system they would have gone into if they didn't go into NSPS. If employees do return to the GS system they will return at the level they were at under NSPS.

So to recap. FERS flu is cured as long as you retire after January 1, 2009, and NSPS will end sometime before 2011 with most employees returning to the GS system.

Next on the agenda for the National Federation of Federal Employees the union is asking Congress to support pay parity. Right now civilian pay raises and military pay raises are not equal.

One other interesting tidbit of information. You know that retirement tsunami that has been lore in the federal government for years? Both Mike Causey and Randy Erwin believe it could actually be on its way come January 2 2014 when the FERS flu sick leave comes into full effect.