Each Regional Civilian Personnel Operations Center (CPOC) develops and implements a Merit Promotion Plan in coordination with installation Civilian Personnel Advisory Centers (CPACs). The plan stipulates the personnel actions covered and subject to the competitive procedures contained therein. It also lists personnel actions where the competitive procedures do not or need not apply (noncompetitive actions). Supervisors and employees should be familiar with the contents of the Merit Promotion Plan. It contains provisions, such as area of consideration for promotion actions; job analysis, candidate evaluation criteria; basic eligibility and best qualified determinations; ranking and referral of candidates; use of awards, training, education and appraisal data; and, interviewing and selection actions.
Actions under the Merit Promotion Plan shall be made without regard to political, religious, or labor organization affiliation or nonaffiliation, marital status, race, color, sex, national origin, nondisqualifying physical disability, or age, and shall be based solely on job-related criteria (5 CFR 335.103(b)(1)).
The plan is periodically reviewed for currency and responsiveness to increasing flexibilities provided by the Office of Personnel Management and the changing needs of managers and employees. Changes to the Merit Promotion Program cannot be implemented until obligations to negotiate with the local labor union have been accomplished.
