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Washington, D.C.—For the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees, the continuing push by the administration to move the federal workforce from the General Schedule (GS) pay system to alternative systems is a step backward.

“NTEU’s experience shows the alternative pay systems in many of the agencies are characterized not by success stories, but by a litany of failed experiments, widespread employee dissatisfaction, inequitable distribution of resources, abuse in ratings systems, and rampant employee confusion leading to low morale,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

President Kelley offered her first-hand assessment of alternative pay systems in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia.

“For a pay system to be credible and effective,” she said, “it must either be set in statute, like the GS system, so that everyone understands the rules and consequences, or there must be collective bargaining so employees can have a role in the pay system and have remedies for unfairness.”

President Kelley offered four real-life examples of failed alternative pay systems at federal agencies, including the Performance Accountability and Standards System (PASS) at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

PASS is a dismal failure that plays a key role in the dangerously high TSA turnover rate, President Kelley said, adding that fewer than one in four employees believe their pay raise is determined by merit—and that only one in five believe promotions are based on merit.

Further, TSA employees are constantly tested, but are not told what they did wrong in the event they fail; training is minimal; and a majority of employees don’t even know what is expected of them in order to earn a pay raise.

Now, TSA has awarded Lockheed-Martin Corp. a $1.2 billion contract to handle human resource issues, including pay; that money, Kelley told the lawmakers, would be better spent by putting Transportation Security Officers under the GS system, increasing staffing and reducing airport congestion. She also called for TSA employees to be given collective bargaining rights without delay.

“Even at agencies where pay is negotiated through collective bargaining, NTEU has seen problems,” Kelley said. Specifically, she pointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

The SEC system used a set of vague and subjective criteria with no clear linkage to job duties, and was found, after an NTEU grievance, to have discriminated against African-American employees above grade 8 and employees aged 40 and older. At the FDIC, only 12 percent of employees said they found the system actually rewarded performance. Both programs have been suspended; and NTEU is working with the SEC and FDIC to design credible, fair and transparent pay systems.

And at the Internal Revenue Service, where managers are under a pay banding system, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has warned that the pay system potentially hinders the agency’s recruitment, retention and motivation efforts—and is a threat to quality taxpayer service.

As she has done in the past, the NTEU leader offered her support for the GS pay system, emphasizing that it is market-sensitive through its different locality pay areas and provides raises and career ladder promotions based on merit and performance criteria.

Given the lack of any hard evidence of success of alternative pay systems in the federal sector, President Kelley called for a moratorium on new implementations and a review of existing programs to see if they are meeting their goals. “Those failing should be cancelled,” she said.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.