TERMINATION FOR VOLUNTEERING REVERSED

A law enforcement employee was asked to volunteer to attend a multi-week, off-site training program.  Being the agreeable type, he volunteered.  Somewhere during the training, which involved significant physical activity, he broke two ribs.  Nonetheless, he once again volunteered to go on rather than take sick leave or workers comp. In the end, however, he failed the course.  When he got back to the office, he was notified that the agency was terminating him for a failure to perform—and out the door he went. All this happened back in 2014. He appealed to MSPB, but you might remember that President Trump shut down MSPB given that it was the only agency with the power to punish any Hatch Act violations his White House staff might commit. That worked perfectly for his staff protecting a half-dozen of them from prosecution, but it stranded this law enforcement officer for more than 7 years. However, …

President Biden put the MSPB back online last month and this very old case was among the first it decided.  Fortunately, for the employee it reversed the termination and reinstated him with back pay and benefits. Apparently, terminating someone for failing at a task for which he not only volunteered, but also which the agency lets any employee who asks get out of the training program is not grounds for termination. So, we send out congrats to Ricardo Cendejas and we recommend you keep this decision in mind in case one of your colleagues is disciplined, even in part, because s/he failed to accomplish something that was voluntary.