Ask the Lawyer received the following question (paraphrased for easier reading and clarity) from a reader on a legal matter that might be of interest to the entire audience.
Q:
I received my last Official Pay Pool Notice which says that employees who are no longer covered by the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) on the day of a payout are not entitled to a performance-based payout. It goes on to say that all employees will transition out of NSPS prior to this date and therefore will be ineligible for an NSPS performance payout. Does this mean I will not be receiving a performance payout for the past year’s work?
Also, since NSPS was originally set up by pooling money employees would have made under the General Schedule (GS) step increases, are we in effect losing money if we do not get that money back due to the transition to the GS system?
A:
Pay adjustments are awards have been limited or eliminated by the pay freeze. Considering that many NSPS payments were discretionary, I doubt there is any likely successful remedy for NSPS conversions so long as someone’s former NSPS salary is not reduced upon conversion to the GS system.
Bill Bransford is managing partner of Shaw, Bransford & Roth, PC.
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