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Washington, D.C.—The fiscal 2010 homeland security appropriations bill signed into law today by President Obama contains yet another prohibition preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from moving ahead with a personnel system that would undercut and erode employees’ workplace rights, the leader of the union representing tens of thousands of homeland security employees said.

“As we did in the last fiscal year, we are pleased to have successfully secured language preventing any funding in fiscal 2010 for implementation of DHS’s discredited personnel system, once known as MaxHR,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

It was NTEU which led the successful fight—in both the federal courts and with Congress—to turn back efforts begun under the previous administration to impose a regressive new personnel system, with the clear intention of spreading such systems throughout the federal government. DHS has said it has no intention to revive this program, but Congress has not yet repealed authority for it.

The multi-billion-dollar appropriations measure includes $8.1 million for 65 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers and eight support staff positions dedicated to combating increased southbound firearms and currency smuggling.

While acknowledging that increase, President Kelley believes that additional staffing would be a significant help to CBP in meeting its multiple security and trade-related duties. She has testified on that point a number of times, including most recently last week before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism.

The NTEU leader noted that increased staffing plays a vital role in the effective movement of people and goods at ports of entry while ensuring that a variety of dangerous goods are stopped at the border.

“We cannot expect these dedicated frontline employees to perform their jobs the way the nation expects and needs to have them done unless there are enough people to meet the varied missions of this crucial department,” she said. NTEU has consistently called for more personnel in a variety of key security and trade positions at the ports of entry.

Kelley also welcomed the appropriations bill language prohibiting DHS from imposing discipline on employees who want to wear protective masks during a public health emergency, such as a swine flu pandemic.

Earlier this year, during a widespread swine flu episode, NTEU led a highly-visible and ultimately successful campaign against prohibitions by some managers in DHS agencies, including CBP and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), preventing the voluntary wearing of personal protective equipment, including respirator masks, by frontline employees.

The guidance issued by DHS to its managers on the use of such equipment at that time was confusing at best, and often contradictory.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including the entire 24,000-employee CBP workforce and thousands of TSA employees at airports across the country.