Wednesday, January 25, 2006; A17

The Defense Department agreed yesterday to delay implementation of its new personnel system until at least March 1 to give a federal judge time to decide whether the new rules pass legal muster.

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia told lawyers for the department and for a coalition of federal employee labor unions that it would take him at least that long to sort through the issues at the heart of the unions' lawsuit against the new system.

"It's an extremely important case and it is extremely complex," Sullivan said yesterday during a three-hour hearing.

The National Security Personnel System, which would cover 650,000 civilian employees, would replace the familiar 15-grade General Schedule pay system with one in which raises are linked to annual performance evaluations. The new work rules also would curtail the power of labor unions and make it easier to hire, promote and discipline employees -- all in the name of making the Defense Department more nimble in the struggle against terrorism.

The unions contend that the new rules would gut collective bargaining in violation of federal law. And they maintain that department officials did not live up to their obligation, spelled out in the 2003 law that paved the way for the changes, to consult with employees' representatives in developing a new labor management system.

"They simply ignored the explicit requirement of the law and did what they wanted to do," said Joe Goldberg, a lawyer for the American Federation of Government Employees, the lead union.

A similar lawsuit against the Homeland Security Department has delayed the implementation of a new pay system there by as much as a year. In August, U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer faulted the new DHS system for undermining employees' rights to collective bargaining, and blocked implementation of new rules governing labor relations and employee appeals. DHS has appealed.

Joseph Lobue, a lawyer for the Justice Department, told Sullivan that the DOD personnel system was "very different from Judge Collyer's case." He added: "She was faced with a very different statue. . . . These agencies have explicit authority to do just what they did."

Agreeing to the delay was a small concession. The DOD already had pushed back the start date of the new system to April 30. It will continue to develop a new internal labor relations board, however.

-- Christopher Lee