There is a mushroom cloud climbing into the sky over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that was triggered by management’s incompetence. NRC fired an employee for unacceptable performance back in 2018 and now must pay her around a million dollars in back plus retro leave earnings, etc. because the MSPB ruled its entire performance appraisal system sucks. The decision lays out some standards MSPB demands appraisal systems meet before agencies can terminate employees that all unions should make sure their own agencies’ system meet. It is my guess there are a few agencies out there that similarly fail to have a legal critical element system.. Here are some details from Latisha A. Zepeda, v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2024 MSPB 14 (October 30, 2024). Continue reading
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals just issued a decision stating once again that agencies need not provide employees with written performance standards, much less objective ones. We have probably all seen standards that state some task should be accomplished “timely” or “with a minimum errors” or even “in compliance with agency manuals, policies and practices.” This lack of clarity is particularly problematic with the so-called “generic performance standards.” The bottom line is that when standards are neither written nor objective they are anything the supervisor says they are at the moment his lips are moving. In this case, the employee was performing a certain task Fully Successfully under one supervisor for years, but as soon as a new supervisor showed up he announced she was unacceptable. So, what is a union to do about this? Continue reading
Not long ago FEDSMILL posted a piece entitled, “Grievance Strategy Issues- Part 4” which examined how specific a grievance must be to avoid several traps that can destroy an otherwise valid allegation. FLRA just added its own view on this in a decision entitled AFGE, Local 1741 and DOJ, FBP, Michigan, 72 FLRA 501 (2021). Unions had better rethink how specific their grievances are because you can bet the mortgage that agencies are going to start pounding them with this new decision to gut grievances no matter what the past practice is. Continue reading
The core of this story is simple. Jaleesa filed an EEO complaint alleging that the Agency discriminated against her on the basis of sex (non-gender-conforming woman in a same-sex relationship) when management asked Complainant not to hug her female co-worker on the workroom floor. This co-worker was also Complainant’s partner in a same-sex romantic relationship. Open and shut decision, i.e., guilty of sex discrimination. But what would the remedy be? The employee convinced EEOC to award her $35,000 for that warning about hugging her partner in the workplace. I pass this story ono to remind union reps that sometimes single, isolated events can lead to be pay-offs. For details, check out Jaleesa P., v. Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General, USPS, EEOC Appeal No. 2024000023 (2024)