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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers today called for a delay in the implementation of the Department of Homeland Security’s new performance management and pay system as the many critical flaws in its proposal, as pointed out by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) from the first days the idea was advanced by DHS, become apparent.

After attending workshops being held by DHS this week on the performance appraisal system, NTEU called on DHS to push back the planned ‘Phase 1 conversion’ of employees to pay banding as part of a new compensation plan. The new performance management system was slated to be in effect no later than Oct. 1, 2006. Meanwhile, the pay system is planned to be implemented in phases, starting in January 2006.

“NTEU said from the beginning that any personnel system at DHS, including a pay system, has to be fair, credible and transparent to have any chance to succeed,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said. “To this day, there is no credible performance management system in place to form the single most important underpinning of the kind of pay plan DHS envisions.”

President Kelley noted that NTEU chapter leaders from DHS came to Washington this week to meet with agency officials about proposed performance standards for various work competencies—a critical element of determining employee performance.

Kelley said these experienced front-line employees said the DHS proposals, presented to them by the agency’s contractor, failed to adequately reflect what happens day to day in the workplace. During the meetings, they slammed the proposals as completely unrealistic and unworkable, with no understanding of the actual work performed by the employees.

She added: “These kinds of problems illustrate clearly the pitfalls in not recognizing the value of the insights of frontline employees and incorporating employees’ views at the very outset in designing an entirely new pay system.”

Kelley called on DHS to bargain with NTEU on the entire DHS personnel system, including pay and performance management. “DHS should realize the enormity and complexities of what it is trying to do and should seriously reconsider the path it is taking and the timetable for implementation. It is more clear than ever that this system is not a workable system,” she said.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including about 14,000 in DHS.