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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today expressed her anger and disappointment at proposals for a new personnel system in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that would allow management to make unilateral changes at will to employees’ working conditions with no involvement of their exclusive representatives.

“These proposals reflect a complete lack of appreciation for the skills, experience and dedicated work of front-line employees,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents some 13,000 DHS employees formerly of the U.S. Customs Service.

While regulations for the new system have not yet been published, the NTEU leader said a number of matters already are clear—that independent review of collective bargaining disputes will be stripped away while limitations on collective bargaining are imposed; that the role of employee representatives in support of workers will be sharply diminished; that there will be virtually no ability for employees to turn to an impartial third party, outside the agency, to resolve disputes; and that a new, yet-unspecified pay-banding system is to be implemented.

Kelley was especially critical of changes to the labor relations process that include creation of an internal DHS review board for disputes, rather than using an impartial third-party process. She also noted with strong disapproval that the collective bargaining process would be severely undermined—specifically that many matters now subject to bargaining would no longer be, such as deployment of personnel, assignment of work and the use of technology, also eliminating impact and implementation bargaining.

“No system can work effectively without the key elements of fair treatment for employees,” she said, and “in particular an appeals process that not only affords employees the protections of due process but offers them a credible likelihood that their issues will be dealt with objectively and expeditiously.”

Kelley repeated her assertion that the only way this major new department can succeed on behalf of the American people is if employees and their representatives are fully engaged in meaningful ways.

Publication by DHS of the proposed regulations in the Federal Register, expected next week, will begin a 30-day comment period; that will be followed by a second 30-day period providing time for discussion of issues raised during the comment period.

“NTEU will be formally responding to the regulations during the 30-day comment period and expects to have ongoing discussions with DHS regarding the personnel proposals,” President Kelley said. “This process is far from over, and NTEU will continue to commit our resources, energy, time and every tool available to us to positively impact these regulations for the good of the country, the department and the employees,” she added.

In addition, the NTEU leader said, the union will press its substantial concerns about these developments among members of Congress, and—looking ahead to the fall election—“will work as hard as we possibly can to put in place an administration, and a Congress, whose members understand and value the contributions of our nation’s federal employees.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments.