Category Archives: Discipline/Adverse Action
WHEN AGENCIES DRAG OUT DISCIPLINE INVESTIGATIONS Throughout our career we benefitted from making a note of an excerpt, footnote or even snippet of a case, regulatory comment or policy transmittal. They proved invaluable at bargaining tables when the other side … Continue reading
ISSA, CHAFFETZ TARGET VETS FOR TERMINATION House leaders just announced that they are coming after veterans, including those with injuries, by making it easier to fire them and deny them other rights. Yup! God’s honest truth. Today’s e-media carried a … Continue reading
AN MSPB HOLIDAY SURPRISE Would you have predicted this? An employee was fired. When she filed an appeal with MSPB she not only denied the agency’s charges, but also claimed discrimination based on sex and disability. Not long after, the … Continue reading
MSPB’S 13TH DOUGLAS FACTOR (Revised) MSPB and virtually every arbitrator use the 12 so-called Douglas factors to decide whether to mitigate an adverse action penalty. (See a complete list of the Douglas factors at the end of this posting.) It … Continue reading
WE DO NOT ADVISE DOING THIS, BUT … Most union reps know that when a manager orders an employee to do something the employee had better do it no matter how wrong the order is. There is a collective bargaining … Continue reading
ADVERSE ACTION QUIZ: WHO IS BETTER OFF? Assume that two employees get 15-day adverse action suspensions, their union takes each case to arbitration, and both suspensions are overturned. One employee, Smith, had his adverse action overturned and reduced to a … Continue reading
MSPB PANDERS A TINY BIT LESS TO AGENCIES One of the most disappointing precedents to ever roll out of the Board established that agencies need not meet the tough standard of proof required to fire an employee for falsification, namely, … Continue reading
WHEN HAIR TRUMPS URINE An agency suspended a firefighter for 30 days who tested positive for illegal drugs after being selected in a random test. Because the employee was absolutely convinced that he had not used drugs, he tried to … Continue reading
WHEN HR DISRESPECTS DECIDING OFFICIALS Sitting as the deciding official over a proposed adverse action is a big deal. Not only does the DO have to respect employee Constitutional rights, but also the requirements of law, regulation, agency policy, past … Continue reading
BORDER PATROL COUNCIL OVERCOMES CBP DWI ARREST FLRA just published a decision describing how the AFGE Border Patrol Council very skillfully overturned a Customs and Border Protection employee’s five-day suspension for failing a field sobriety test while off duty and … Continue reading