Monthly Archives: October 2020
SHORT, SWEET, AND UNQUESTIONABLY ILLEGAL When an VA employee asked for a reasonable accommodation, VA management moved the request very efficiently by providing a prompt denial and ending the discussion of the request. Short and sweet, but according to EEOC … Continue reading
WHAT IS A GRIEVANCE RECOVERY PERIOD? The FLRA has said that it “specifically distinguished between contractual back pay recovery periods and contractual time periods for filing grievances.” Consequently, we practitioners had better know the difference, particularly negotiators when we sit down to write … Continue reading
CHIEF ALJ LIES AND EMPLOYEE DIES We will never know if the Chief ALJ’s actions hastened this employee’s death, but they sure did not help. A judge in SSA’s Office of Hearing Operations (OHO) in North Charleston, South Carolina had … Continue reading
EMPLOYEE FORCES AGENCY TO SEND HER TO TRAINING You read a lot about employees grieving or challenging removals and suspensions as well as leave and promotion denials. But it is rare to see a case where the employee knew enough … Continue reading
UNION REP TEST #11 (WIGI/ALOC) Agencies do not often propose to withhold a Within Grade Increase (WIGI), which is also known as an Acceptable Level of Competence determination (ALOC). But because it is so rare, it is easy for … Continue reading
I WILL BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE! EEOC long ago ruled that it constitutes illegal reprisals for a manager to tell an employee who has filed an EEO complaint that was the “wrong way to go about getting a promotion.” (Binseel … Continue reading
WHAT DID THIS UNION DO WRONG? Here are the facts. See if you can figure out two things the union did wrong. The agency had a practice of placing a guard at each of its strategically important locations around its property every … Continue reading