A controversial new personnel system affecting nearly 5,000 Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workers and roughly 700,000 civilian defense workers elsewhere is on hold at least until March 1.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., got both sides to agree to the delay Tuesday during a hearing on a lawsuit filed by unions to block the system.
“It’s an extremely important case, and it is extremely complex,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said during a three-hour hearing.
The unions claim the National Security Personnel System would violate federal law by undercutting the workers’ right to collective bargaining. The Defense Department says it needs the rules, which would make it easier to hire, fire and discipline employees, to fight the war on terror effectively.
The Metal Trades Council is one several affected unions at the shipyard, which is in Kittery, Maine. Council President Paul O’Connor called the delay good news.
“It shows me that there are enough people paying attention that something’s not right here,” O’Connor said. “We’ll see what happens.”
O’Connor has said previously the new system would empower the Defense Department to make policy changes that would override existing labor contracts.
“We have lost the ability and the right of collective bargaining … this is just as big to us as BRAC,” he said, referring to the nationwide round of base closures that Portsmouth barely survived last year.
A new personnel system at the Homeland Security Department was delayed when a judge ruled in August that its system undermined collective bargaining rights. The government has appealed.
Joseph Lobue, a lawyer for the Justice Department, told Sullivan that case is “very different” from the Defense Department one.
Unions comprising the United Department of Defense Workers Coalition sued in November to block the Defense proposal.
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On the Net:
http://www.uniteddodworkerscoalition.org/
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