LOOKING AHEAD TO THE TRUMP RIFS
At the White House’s request agencies are preparing their systems to execute RIF’s in the next few months. One defense to a RIF is to argue that it has an inordinate impact on one or more classes of employees protected under the Civil Rights Acts. Because every employee is protected in one class or another under those laws, including the white male, unions should have already started to request the data they will need to determine if there will be an illegal adverse impact on any class. The easiest way to do that is to file an information request with the agency requesting the performance appraisal scores of each employee for the last four years by race, gender, national origin, age, year of score, etc. It would be wise to request other data as well, e.g., each employee’s job title, grade, location, SCD date, veteran’s status, competitive area, competitive level, etc. And of course, you do not need to have the agency identify the employee’s name or other PPI. Raw data will do. Agencies will use these scores to decide how many extra points to give employees in determining their RIF scores. The more points, the less likelihood that the employee will be RIF’d. For example, … Continue reading →