SPECIAL COUNSEL BREACHES CBP’S HUMAN RESOURCES BUNKER

We have been saying it for a while.  The HR/LR operation at Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has little respect for the law. Check out these two FEDSMILL postings: CBP/DHS, LIKE A FISH, IS ROTTING FROM THE HEAD FIRST and LR’S BIGGEST LOSERS. AFGE and NTEU deserve credit for pursuing CBP’s illegal/improper personnel actions like a hungry junk yard dog.  They sank their litigation teeth in nearly a decade ago and have not let go while they wait for FLRA and possibly the courts to tell CBP leadership that this game is over and it is time to start writing checks to all the employees it cheated out of money.  But now the two unions have a new ally that has opened a third front for CBP’s besieged HR leaders.  The U. S. Special Counsel has opened an investigation into alleged deliberate efforts by a former Commissioner and his HR folks to ignore merit rules to give three people very high paying CBP jobs. We do not know the status of the investigation, but we did notice on USAJOBS.gov that CBP is looking to fill a recent vacancy in its top HR job. Stay tuned for an update on the Special Counsel investigation as well as any resolution of the multi-million dollar grievance claims the two unions have pending.