Jay Inslee: “our amendment would ensure that no funds would be used essentially to alter our existing civilian personnel system for…”

“our amendment would ensure that no funds would be used essentially to alter our existing civilian personnel system for the proud men and women who are civilian employees of our defense system. This basically is a response to the work we are now doing in an attempt to find a reasonable and protective reform package that originally left the House as H.R. 1588. We are concerned that the language of that bill, if in fact it would be implemented, would substantially degrade our protections of our civilian employees who are doing workman-like work. Basically, we had concerns about that bill because it was overly broad and was really a rushed approach to civilian systems, but we are also troubled by a lack of explicit protections for fundamental worker rights. Currently, the bill has a lack of protection for true collective bargaining, a lack of a real right of fair appeals, a lack of adequate overtime and weekend compensation, preference for veterans and equal pay for equal work.”