They put a damper on the new personnel work rules of Homeland Security, now labor unions have turned to the Defense Department, challenging in court the Pentagon’s new National Security Personnel System work rules issued last month. (DR, 10/28/05) The unions claim they were stiff-armed by the Pentagon. According to Government Executive, they say DOD officials held meetings with union representatives present, but there was no substantive conversation about the rules took place. Unions also argue that the new system, which will govern 650,000 employees, fails to safeguard employee collective bargaining rights.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
