AFSCME Information Highway

Source: Review of Public Personnel Administration, Vol. 27, No. 4
By Jack Underhill and Ray Oman

This article critiques the proposed radical changes to the civil service system at the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. It also summarizes the civil service problems and assesses whether the proposed changes would be likely to address those problems. It identifies the difficulties that one of the critical changes (merit pay or pay-for-performance) has encountered in the past. The article is critical of the proposed termination of the General Schedule system, which has served the civil service system so well in the past. It expresses concern about the proposed weakening of rights of employee appeals, protections, and meaningful union participation. The article argues that there are a number of problems facing the civil service, but that most of the changes do not address those problems. It lauds the major achievements of the federal service and cautions against radical changes that will have the effect of weakening it.

Posted by Info Center at 2:11 PM in Civil Service | Permalink

It's one thing to attract young people to government jobs. It's another to keep them there.
Source: KATHERINE BARRETT & RICHARD GREENE
Governing
November 2007

http://www.governing.com/articles/11manage.htm

There's been a lot of emphasis in states, counties and cities on hiring the new generation of the "best and the brightest." Toward that end, some have spruced up their Web sites so that applying for a job is as simple as buying a book online. They've set up booths at job fairs, run newspaper ads and gone on hiring forays in neighboring cities. A number of governments send cadres of recruiters to college campuses.

Here's the sad news: Many of these efforts aren't dissimilar to turning on the spigots in your bathtub -- while the drain is wide open.

"Our members talk about how young people aren't staying in their public-sector jobs," says Leslie Scott, association manager of the National Association of State Personnel Executives. "They can attract them, but they may not stay." In Texas last year, for example, there was a 36.9 percent turnover among those who were under 30, compared with 9.4 percent in the 40- to 49-year-old group.

Posted by Info Center at 1:51 PM in Civil Service | Permalink

Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Annual Report on the Federal Work Force, Fiscal Year 2006

From press release:
Naomi C. Earp, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), today released the Annual Report on the Federal Work Force for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006, covering October 2005 through September 2006. The comprehensive report, which informs and advises the President and the U.S. Congress on the state of equal employment opportunity (EEO) government-wide, is available on the agency’s web site.

The 58-page annual report follows the structure of the requirements set forth in the EEOC’s Management Directive (MD)-715 and includes practical tips for improving EEO performance. Data in the report are presented both in individual agency profiles and in government-wide aggregate form. MD-715, which became effective in October 2003, is an extensive guidance document for federal agencies promoting EEO principles and best practices.

The report shows that in FY 2006, federal employees and applicants filed 16,723 complaints alleging employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability and reprisal – down seven percent from just over 18,000 complaints in FY 2005 and nearly 20,000 complaints in prior years.
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Posted by Info Center at 12:38 PM in Civil Service | Discrimination | Workforce | Permalink

Source: Russell L. Williams, Ph.D. and James S. Bowman, Ph.D., Public Personnel Management, Volume 36, No. 1, Spring 2007
(subscription required)

The competing values found in private and public sector models of personnel management animate today’s civil service reform debate. Unfortunately, the antagonists frequently produce as much heat as light as their positions become entrenched and genuine dialogue suffers. In such situations, insights from another time and place can provide a perspective on issues and events. A case in point is philosopher and poet George Santayana who observed in 1905 that, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Drawing upon his work, this critique of civil service reform first briefly reviews the origins of the merit system and the objectives of contemporary changes. Then, a case study in the trendsetting “megastate” of Florida is analyzed. The conclusion speculates on the future of radical reform.

Posted by Info Center at 5:54 PM in Civil Service | Permalink