ARE THE DOUGLAS FACTORS GONE?
Not yet, but Trump’s appointees are doing their best to punish federal employees just for being part of the government that came after him and the January 6th terrorists. Its latest revenge initiative, but hardly its last, is to take away the Douglas Factors which for decades have protected employees from arbitrary disciplinary penalties. This is a big deal. A VERY BIG DEAL. It would permit a manager to fire a 30-year employee for showing up 15 minutes late one day in his entire career. There would be no consideration of mitigating factors, how similarly situated employees were disciplined or even the harm and cost to the government of dismissing a fed with decades of experience and training for a trivial infraction. (Oh, that we could fire Trump or his drones when they made a single mistake. Bye, bye RFK Jr. for the measles disaster; so long Hegseth for pushing the war with Iran; and hasta la vista Attorney General Blanche for the illegal and unethical deal givng the Trump family immunity from federal income taxes forever. But I digress.)
Unions have already started to push back on this insanity, but local leaders should get in a position to have their members get involved in any union effort to seek Congressional help. Check out this blog posting from the legal experts at Dewey Publishing for more details on how the White House wants to make your life tougher and riskier. It would be wise the follow the advice of the Dewey firm to supplement your defense of disciplined employees with Douglas-alternative arguments in oral replies, grievances and arbitrations.
