Dismantling the Civil Service: A Labor Perspective on Developments Affecting Federal Labor Relations

Abstract

As recently as one year ago, the Bush Administration and its allies were rationalizing their proposed civil service reforms based on the difficulty federal agencies were experiencing in hiring the next generation of employees even as half the current federal workforce attained retirement eligibility. Beginning with the legislative fight over the extent of managerial discretion in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, the Administration’s civil service buzzword has become “flexibility” and its rationale the war on terrorism.The issue is no longer how to improve the conditions of employment to attract new federal employees. What was recently “civil service reform” aimed at raising pay and facilitating hiring is now a harsh and punitive attempt to dismantle the modern civil service system. The Bush Administration’s agenda appears to involve eliminating government-wide systems affecting pay, job classifications, performance appraisals, hiring, and the right to appeal adverse actions. It also appears to involve removing any organized or effective counterweight to the ability to impose these draconian changes; the agenda threatens to eliminate federal employees’ rights to collective bargaining and other union representation.