Federal employees were dealt a major blow on August 10 when the U.S. Court of Appeals denied an attempt by federal worker unions to overturn a new Pentagon personnel system. 35 unions representing nearly 750,000 employees at the Department of Defense filed the motion and now plan to take it to the Supreme Court. According to the new personnel rules, the Defense Department can assign employees to new roles without first bargaining with union representatives. Employees can be disciplined without warning and without a union representative present during proceedings. Employees will also now be paid based on performance instead of seniority. Currently 110,000 employees are covered by the new system and 500,000 are expected to be covered by the end of 2008.