Category Archives: Discipline/Adverse Action
HOW TO CHALLENGE FURLOUGH PROPOSALS Thousands of feds are facing notices of proposed furloughs and the dilemma of whether or not to challenge them via the oral/written reply process or beyond. A challenge is more likely to pay off than … Continue reading
DIRECTED REASSIGNMENT CASE LAW OVERHAULED Agencies have the right to terminate an employee who refuses an order to reassign, but only so long as the agency has a bona fide need for the employee to be located elsewhere. Or at … Continue reading
IS PUNCTUALITY AN ESSENTIAL JOB ELEMENT? Most people think so, but now a federal circuit court has raised the possibility that it might not be in every case. For generations employers have fired employees for failing to report to work … Continue reading
Posted in ADA/ADAAA, Discipline/Adverse Action
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WHEN DECIDING OFFICIALS GO EX PARTE The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals just administered a major smack down to HUD when it let a deciding official (DO) talk to witnesses after management had issued its proposed termination letter. (See Rayland … Continue reading
MSPB CLARIFIES INDEFINITE SUSPENSION RULES The law gives management the right to put someone on an immediate, indefinite suspension if it believes the person is guilty of a criminal offense for which he/she may be imprisoned. Unfortunately, agencies are a … Continue reading
EMPLOYEES CAN WITHDRAW RESIGNATIONS & DOWNGRADE REQUESTS At times, agency managers will pressure and even harass an employee to the point that he gives up and resigns or asks for a downgrade to an easier job. Once the managers have … Continue reading
DISCIPLINE’S “DISPARATE PENALTIES” DEFENSE MSPB just issued a decision that should help unions successfully represent disciplined employees. It clarified, and some say expanded, the union’s ability to argue that any penalty must be mitigated, if not totally overturned, if the … Continue reading
UNTIMELY DISCIPLINE SUGGESTS CBP MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER What does it say about an agency when it takes months or even years after it becomes aware of an employee’s misconduct to discipline the employee? We think it suggests a serious mental illness … Continue reading
Posted in Arbitration, Discipline/Adverse Action
Tagged Multiple Personality Disorder
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TURNING TABLES OF PENALTIES ON MANAGEMENT Not long ago MSPB overturned an adverse action because of a mistake management made using its own table of penalties to set the penalty. The mistake was not an obvious one. We want to … Continue reading