Department of Energy
National Nuclear Security Administration
Washington, DC 20585
National Nuclear Security Administration
Washington, DC 20585
FROM: GERALD L. TALBOT, JR.
ASSOCIATE DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR FOR NUCLEAR SAFETY AND OPERATIONS
TO: SITE OFFICE MANAGERS
SUBJECT: M&O Contractor Salary Increase Budget, Submission and Implementation
The purpose of this document is to change the cycle for contractor Compensation Increase Plan (CIP) submissions to October 1 and to delay resultant pay raises to allow consideration of the most recent annual Program Evaluation Plans (PEP) in pay programs.
The change to the CIP submission date from July 1st to October 1st is for two reasons: First, NNSA has approved employee performance incentive pay (bonus) plans at KCP and Y-12 and is expecting proposals shortly from LLNS and LANS. Also, SNL has a variable pay component tied to performance. These plans should provide pay to employees based on the contractors' performance against PEP measures and on individuals' performance. Since Contractors submit CIPs on July 1st each year and many distribute pay raises and bonuses to employees on October 1st, the cycle does not allow consideration of the contractors' PEP performance in setting pay. Second, a delay in submission will allow for use of more current salary survey results published in July to determine position to market. Starting in 2009, the contractors shall submit their salary increase requests for the fiscal year on October 1st and shall not provide pay increases/incentive payments to employees until the PEP evaluation is complete and is considered in employee performance evaluation and pay determinations, where appropriate for this year. For future employee performance cycles, contractors will be expected to develop a method to consider PEP evaluations in pay determination decisions for employees as appropriate. This will facilitate contractor focus on contract performance in executing pay programs.
DOE Order 350.1 and/or your site contract require NNSA approval of the Contractor's annual compensation increase plan (CIP). For FY 2009, NNSA approved salary increase budgets in July 2008 that ranged between 3.5% and 6.1%. However, more recent data indicates that most commercial companies, who are providing salary increases in 2009, have revised their salary increase budgets to between 2% and 3%. Additionally, a recent survey by Grant Thornton LLP shows that 65% of companies surveyed said that they will not give pay raises in 2009. Since our contractors have already distributed their 2009 increases they have likely gained ground in pay relative to their market competitors. Therefore any CIP request greater than 3% will be heavily scrutinized given the data available to date. Updated data will become available by August and should be incorporated into the contractor's FY2010 submissions. Contractors shall perform their usual market analysis to determine their CIP request. It is imperative that annual Compensation Increase Plans (CIPs) submitted for NNSA approval contain adequate, up-to-date information in order for NNSA to make informed decisions regarding expenditure of taxpayer money.
Contracting Officers are hereby requested to make appropriate contract changes to facilitate the October 1st submission date for CIPs with increase salary payment dates that allow PEP evaluation consideration in setting pay increase and bonus amounts for employees. Please direct questions to David Boyd, Director Office of Acquisition and Supply Management, at (202) 586-7554.
Cc: Site Office Contracting Officers
NA-63
NNSA Service Center/OBS
43 comments:
"For future employee performance cycles, contractors will be expected to develop a method to consider PEP evaluations in pay determination decisions for employees as appropriate. This will facilitate contractor focus on contract performance in executing pay programs." (NNSA)
Let me translate this for you. In short... it's all about PBIs, Baby!
Oh, and NNSA says "we gave you eggheads way too much of a raise last year, so we want some of it back for this next year!"
An example of a caring employer from someone who is not a leader.
Response to medical marijuana
In accordance with the Laboratory's policy on Substance Abuse (P732), the Laboratory is committed to providing all workers with a work environment that is drug-free, safe, and in compliance with federal and state laws and regulations. The Laboratory typically terminates employees who test positive for illegal drugs, unless they have self-disclosed the issue to Occupational Medicine or the Employee Assistance Program in an effort to obtain assistance and thereafter rigorously abstain. Employees who are struggling with drug or alcohol problems are urged to seek treatment and to use the assistance available at the Laboratory.
As many of you are aware, in 2007 New Mexico enacted the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act. This law provides that in very limited circumstances, individuals suffering from particular medical conditions may obtain permission from the state of New Mexico for medical use of marijuana. However, marijuana use and possession remains illegal under federal law.
Some employees have asked whether the Laboratory will continue to treat marijuana use as a termination-level offense if an individual is permitted to use marijuana for medical purposes under New Mexico law. As a national laboratory, under federal contract with the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration, we believe it remains appropriate for the Lab to prohibit the use of marijuana by those holding a Lab badge, regardless of whether the marijuana use is permitted under New Mexico law. Consequently, the Laboratory's policy on this issue has not changed.
--Ben Glover,Human Resources Division leader
I bet there won't be any hearings on how this info got printed by mistake by Govt Printing Office. Had this been LANL, there would be holy hell raining upon it:
http://tinyurl.com/r3fd5d
It's so nice to know that LANS doesn't give a shit if you are wasting away with cancer and could use a little help to ease your pain as you slowly die. At least the state of New Mexico knows how to show compassion to those who are suffering.
Ben Glover (and LANS LLC executives), you people are truly #1 DICKS!
Perhaps you'll someday get to experience the joys of cancer up close and personal. If so, be a real trooper and remember to stay off the legal NM pain meds as you attempt to hold on to your job at LANL so that you can keep your medical coverage as you die.
"..we believe it remains appropriate for the Lab to prohibit the use of marijuana by those holding a Lab badge, regardless of whether the marijuana use is permitted under New Mexico law." (Ben Glover)
Note the critical use of the word "we" in this statement. Not NNSA, not DOE, not the Federal Government and not Congress.
No, this is strictly a LANS (Bechtel) decision. Another little "F*CK YOU" to all their loyal employees.
Hey, maybe they can use this decision to fire all the cancer patients working at LANL next year so as to help meet their NNSA goal of a 5% attrition rate!
Sweet idea, huh, Benny?
First, my bet is that the LANL bonuses will NOT go for good science. They will go for whatever compliance activities maximize Mikey's bonus.
Second, delaying the salary increases until January is yet another screwing of the employees!
So are NNSA employees in the site office going to get their annual raises?
3%. This should cover the cost of inflation and other increases such as health care, property taxes, etc.
I don't think I've come out ahead in many, many many years.
Heaven forbid that NNSA would give raises higher than 65% of other companies and 2009 market survey data.
Yes, 7:11, but that's apples and oranges. They do a good job. You do not.
Hey, look! NNSA reads the blog.
I will try to work less hard to be commensurate with these reduced salary expectations. See, it's already 8:45 and I'm not at work yet. Another home run from NNSA.
Very interesting. There are tons of surveys out there and perhaps DOE/NNSA should look at the most reputable top five national surveys.
"No, this is strictly a LANS (Bechtel) decision."
that's because we're all going to go out and get our doctors to give us a prescription for medicinal marijuana. then we'll be known as the best and brightest potheads.
i'd call them on it and take it to court.
LANS is still living in the mindset of the 20th century and the Cold War.
Under this policy, narcotic prescriptions of morphine and heroin derivatives like Percocet and Oxycontin are OK but more benign drugs like marijuana are banned under all medical situations.
I much rather depend on the slightly high worker next to me who is fighting cancer pain using marijuana than the guy who is heavily doped on on powerful narcotics!
Get real, LANS. It's 2009, not 1959.
i'd call them on it and take it to court.
6/3/09 10:18 AM
It's been done before in several medical marijuana states. Other than in Rhode Island where the law specifically forbids employers from firing the employees for medical marijuana, all other cases have been ruled in favor of the employer and not the employee.
It's screwy. You have the right to take a medicine prescribed by a doctor, but you can still be fired for following your doctor's orders by a closed minded, discriminatory employer.
11:32 AM: shhhh, they haven't realized that more folks abuse prescription drugs now more than any illegal drug.
"First, my bet is that the LANL bonuses will NOT go for good science. They will go for whatever compliance activities maximize Mikey's bonus." - 6:26 AM
This is so obivious, does it really even need stating? LANL is dead as a world class scientific institution. A few of the slightly better scientists may hang on for a wee bit longer, but the dice have been cast.
Watching the Fuzzy Ewok and his pathetic All-Hands performances, one might think that the Director has been on powerful mind altering drugs for quite some time now.
Ben Glover and his family deserve some dread disease that delivers a painful, lingering death all while facing unemployment because of some short-sighted policy designed to save money for the corporation
"... a recent survey by Grant Thornton LLP shows that 65% of companies surveyed said that they will not give pay raises in 2009."
Has anyone actually looked at the Grant Thorton survey to see what it actually says? Mr. Talbot was not exactly honest in his interpretation of its results. Hint: If this reflects NNSA's expectations, it won't make LANS management happy.
"3%. This should cover the cost of inflation and other increases such as health care, property taxes, etc."
Read any newspapers lately? You don't need to spend a lot of energy worrying about inflation this year.
Refinance your house to 5%. That'll be your biggest "raise" of the decade.
"You don't need to spend a lot of energy worrying about inflation this year."
Why not? The Fed has just injected several trillion new dollars into the world. How can we not have inflation?
Hmmm - LANS has been absolutely quiet regarding the COLA for TCP 1 retirees scheduled for July 1. And UC retirees have also not heard.
Does anyone know??
"Does anyone know??" (9:00 PM)
Since we are currently experiencing -2% deflation, the government has already announced that Social Security payments will not be increased for this next year. You'll probably see a similar situation for both UCRP and TCP1 monthly payouts.
UCRP retirees were notified several weeks ago that we would be getting a 2% COLA.
Thanks for letting us know about the UCRP COLA; as usual, LANS won't communicate with us.
2:23 pm: "UCRP retirees were notified several weeks ago that we would be getting a 2% COLA."
Only if you retired on or before July 1, 2006. More recent UC retirees get less.
7/2/06 to 7/1/07 = 1.51%
7/2/07 to 7/1/08 = 0.58%
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/forms_pubs/newsletters/nd_2009_may.pdf
"Refinance your house to 5%. That'll be your biggest "raise" of the decade."
Thanks for the "tip" but my house mortgage is already at 5%.
Therefore, the July 1, 2009COLA rates for UCRP Members or benefit
recipients will be as follows:
Retirement Date
On or before July 1, 2006 (inclusive) 2.00% COLA
Retirement Date
From July 2, 2006 through July 1, 2007 (inclusive) 1.51% COLA
From July 2, 2007 through July 1, 2008 (inclusive) 0.58% COLA
The COLA applies to UCRP members who began receiving monthly
benefits on or before July 1, 2008. The increase will appear in checks paid
at the end of July.
SO ANYONE WHO RETIRED FROM UCRP DURING THE VOLUNTARY SSP WILL RECEIVE .58% COLA.
no wonder LANS doesn't want to announce their similar COLA.
7:26 pm is correct:
http://www.moneynews.com/streettalk/grant_inflation/2008/12/29/165973.html
Jim Grant: Coming Inflation Will Be A Doozy
The Federal Reserve’s policy to boost the economy will lead to surging inflation and weakness for the dollar, says James Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer.
“Specifically, the Fed pledged to print dollars in unlimited volume and to trim its funds rate, if necessary, all the way to zero,” Grant wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
“Wall Street did handsprings. Even government securities prices raced higher, as if, somehow, Treasury bonds were not denominated in the currency with which the Fed had announced its intention to paper the face of the earth.”
And what was everyone cheering in the end? “The central bank's determination to fight deflation — that is, to reinstate inflation,” Grant writes.
One market, only, registered a protest, he points out.
“The Fed's declaration of inflationary intent knocked the dollar for a loop against gold and foreign currencies.”
And what of the future? The road to riches isn’t lined with “little green pieces of paper stamped ‘legal tender,’” Grant writes.
The credit troubles took the Fed unawares, he says.
“So, likely, will the outbreak of the next inflation. Already the stars are aligned for a doozy.”
Desmond Lachman, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, also opposes the Fed’s policy.
“By aggressively resorting to the printing press and by indiscriminately lending to the private sector, the Fed risks compromising longer-term economic growth,” he wrote on AEI’s web site.
We can be sure that the policy is correct. How do we know? Because the AEI opposes it.
Anything that the AEI is in favor of is, by definition, a bad idea. Anything they oppose is a good idea.
Remember, these are the same idiots who thought invading Iraq was a good idea. Bill Kristal has been wrong about every single prediction he has ever made. Our government should listen to what he says, and always do the exact opposite.
The government currently has the luxury of printing as much money as they want without creating inflation because of the vast asset destruction (and associated deflation) that has taken place with the stock market and real estate crash. The fact that the dollar is still the world's reserve currency (for now) also allows the Fed a great deal of leeway in printing money.
Inflation won't become an issue until about 2 years down the road when the economy recovers and yet the Fed keeps their foot glued firmly to the money supply accelerator, as they have already indicated they will do. Once we hit that critical point, inflation is going to quickly get very nasty, much as it did in the late 70's, and eventually hurt many of the retirees trying to live on pensions and fixed incomes. COLAs will help, but they won't make up for all the inflation loss in a high inflation environment.
High inflation also penalized savers and rewards those who borrow to excess. America loves to borrow, so you can pretty much guess how this will eventually turn out. Anyone who locks in a 30 year 5% mortgage with little money down is going to look like a financial genius several years from today. You can already tell that the real estate market in Los Alamos is heating up nicely. "SOLD" signs are popping up everywhere of late.
Sigh... This morning's Wall Street Journal has front-page headlines reading "Slower Job Losses Lift Hopes" and "The Great U-Turn: Global Migration Flows Reverse for the First Time Since the Depression as Work in the Rich World Dries Up." The unemployment rate in May was 9.4%, its highest since 1983 (but "it's less bad than it was" according to one economist interviewed).
Yesterday's WSJ had an opinion piece about the negative long-term impact of employers eliminating their 401(k) matches instead of laying workers off or cutting pay.
Meanwhile, like clockwork, LANL bloggers are complaining about "only" a 3% raise to come this year.
3% raise? either you don't work at LANL or you're in management. The working class is lucky if they get anything. You need a lot of workers with zero raises to get the 3% average in order to balance the massive management raises.
"3% raise? either you don't work at LANL or you're in management. The working class is lucky if they get anything. You need a lot of workers with zero raises to get the 3% average in order to balance the massive management raises."
WTF are you talking about? I am a regular joe blow TSM at LANL. Did you not read the memo in this link where the NNSA is calling for 2-3% raises? Of course this doesn't include the ADs and above who get bonuses based on PBIs.
A 2-3% request is for authority, not for money. Raises come out of current operating funds. So even if NNSA grants the request, there is nothing requiring LANS to allocate a specific amount. And, even if 2-3% is allocated by LANS, Division and AD-level holdbacks probably mean that the "average" raise would be 1-2%. Plus, authority granted by NNSA is usually based on market analysis and therefore varies according to job category (SSM, TSM, Tec, etc.). Any particular employee shouldn't get his/her hopes up.
At LANL, an NNSA approved 5% raise seems to translate into around a 3% raise once it makes its way down to the average TSM.
Thus, a 3% approved raise from NNSA would likely equal around a 2% raise for staff. However, given the declining outlook for LANL's operating budget, LANS will probably whittle this amount down to about a 1.5% increase for this next year, paid after Jan 1st of course.
Enjoy it and try not to spend it all at one place!
So NNSA bends us over again...an average of 1% loss in salary for the four-month raise delay. For the rest of your life.....nice.
The logical employee response.... fewer work hours to keep total compensation rate substantially equivalent to that before the transition.
A one-percent loss in compensation calls for two sick days off this year ..... 1 April (April Fool's) and 1 Oct (NNSA Fool's Day)
John Galt
"Any particular employee shouldn't get his/her hopes up."
I think most LANL employees see the writing on the wall and expect slim to nill raises this year because of the poor U.S.economy. Most people are thankful to be gainfully employed.
However, what irks employees is the big bonuses our management will absorb based on the little guys' performances. Reminds me of the fat cat Wall Street CEOs and their huge bonuses all the while their company is on the verge of bankruptcy.
8:27 pm: "However, what irks employees is the big bonuses our management will absorb based on the little guys' performances."
Look, this is not different in any corporate situation in America. The workers get their salaries, the management gets it's bonuses based on the workers' achievements. You only think this is wrong based on your many years of being coddled by UC. Get over it. You don't work for a university anymore.
"....Get over it. You don't work for a university anymore..."
Leave. Both LLNL and LANL are much poorer places to work than when you hired in. Take your considerable talent and rush to places that value you and do worthwhile science.
The faster the brain drain occurs, the more likely the NNSA failure will be recognized for what it is.
Do yourself and your country a favor.
Get a better deal elsewhere.
11:08 am: "Do yourself and your country a favor.
Get a better deal elsewhere.
Actually, I think I have a pretty good deal here. And no, I'm not in LANL management. I guess I'm just better at adapting than most LANL employees, or at least the ones on this blog. You're hoping for things at LANL to get bad enough that NNSA will be blamed? Not going to happen. LANS might be blamed, but the employees certainly will. In the meantime, LANL will be permanently ruined, regardless of what happens to NNSA or LANS. That will be a damn shame.
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