GS transition in place by Sept. 12

  • Published
  • By Connie Hempel
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs
GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Civilians gathered in the Event Center Monday and Tuesday to hear what the future holds for them as a government employee during the NSPS to GS conversion meetings held by the civilian personnel office.

Goodfellow is scheduled to fully convert to the GS pay system by Sept. 12, which means civilians will receive early annual performance reviews, but no pay pool for awards or bonuses. That may sound like bad news, but statistics of the 53,000 Department of Defense employees who have already converted show 71 percent of personnel received a pay increase, 21 percent received pay retention and only 8 percent saw no change in pay.

The crowd was relieved as they were reassured by Col. Scott Shuttleworth, 17th Mission Support Group deputy commander, and Velma G. Elizardo, 17th Force Support Squadron Civilian Personnel chief, that there will be no pay cuts during the conversion.

Personnel will know by the end of August what pay grade they fall into under the GS system. Certain medical civilian personnel and deployed civilians will not be affected by the transition. They will remain under the NSPS system until further notice.

"The key step in the conversion is finding the appropriate GS grade position to place employees back into the GS system," Ms. Elizardo said.

Goodfellow has been under the current NSPS system since October 2006. Civilian positions with a GS performance description prior to the 2006 change will be assigned a GS grade according to the old position description. Current jobs that do not have a prior position description will have a GS grade assigned by the Air Force Manpower Agency based on the position description.

The civilian personnel office has worked since March finding or creating these standardized core personnel documents for AFMA to make a determination on GS classifications. Ms. Elizardo expects to receive notification of all GS positions later this month; after which, CPO personnel will send notices to employees and supervisors.

To determine pay, employees must first find the GS rate they will be placed into.

"The conversion pay will depend on the GS grade of the position," said Ms. Elizardo.

If an employee's current pay falls below Step 1 of the assigned GS position, then he will be placed at Step 1. If the pay falls between two Steps of the assigned GS position, then he will be placed at the higher Step, which means he will receive a slight increase in pay. If pay is above Step 10 of the assigned GS position, then he will receive Retained Pay, a provision under the GS system which prevents personnel from receiving any decrease in pay.

Retained Pay allows those above Step 10 in any grade to receive 50 percent of the January General Pay Increase. Retained Pay will be terminated when there is a break in service for one or more workdays, when salary attained equals a Step up in the assigned grade, when the employee receives a promotion which placing them into another pay schedule or when the employee requests to receive a reduction in pay grade. Employees who will receive Retained Pay will get a letter explaining what it means to them.

Employees can also view up-to-date information on their position and pay by logging into MyBiz after the conversion.

If an employee disagrees with his GS grade, title, series he can appeal to the Department of Defense or the Office of Personnel Management. These agencies will either agree with classification of position as is or determine that corrections are needed. The final decision rests with the OPM and cannot be appealed any further.

If the performance description is inaccurate, then the supervisor must file a position review. This requires the position description to be rewritten to accurately describe the duties of the position. Once the position is rewritten, it's sent to AFMA for GS classification.

"Appeals cannot be made until after the person is actually in the position which means they can't do either of these until after the conversion," Ms. Elizardo said. "The classification appeal isn't a quick process and you have to remember that the position which you're placed on has to accurately describe the duties that you perform. The positions are not classified based on the person assigned to that position nor is the classification based on how much money that person is making in that position."

Air Education and Training command has about 5,000 civilian employees being converted to GS. So far Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., Vance, Okla., Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, and Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, have already changed. Goodfellow and the remaining seven AETC bases are scheduled to convert Sept. 12.