By William Wiley, June 20, 2017
It has begun. Congress and the White House (and a large group of our fellow citizens) seem to think that it is too hard to fire a bad federal employee. From the pages of this newsletter over the years, you’ve heard us shouting from the rooftops that it really isn’t that hard, if you know what you’re doing. And here at the Federal Employment Law Training Group, we’ve done everything we can, short of compulsory servitude, to help you guys know what to do.
Unfortunately, our efforts fell short. Even though the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 gave agencies terrific tools to hold bad employees accountable while honoring civil servant rights and protections, Congress has felt the need to change those tools, at least at one agency. And it has been widely reported by those inside Capitol Hill that if Congress comes to conclude that these changes actually make accountability easier, Congress will be acting to make these new rules apply to everybody – at least everybody currently a civil servant appointed under Title V.
Last week, the President signed into law the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017. That piece of legislation in large part grew out of Congress’s frustration with the apparent inability of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to remove and otherwise punish DVA employees who allegedly caused veterans to suffer because of poor management within the veteran’s health care system. The law is supposed to “fix” some of the systemic problems in the oversight of discipline in DVA, based in part on a belief by Congress that MSPB has done a poor job of defending our veterans and neglecting to uphold the disciplining of certain senior executives.
Here at good old FELTG, we don’t agree with this premise, but our opinions are worth exactly what you pay for them.
Everybody in our business, or even interested in our business, needs to know the changes that this legislation has created. Even though most of us do not work at DVA and will not be directly affected by the new law, what we see in this act might very well soon be applicable to the entire federal service. So, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee (that’s John Donne, in case you were wondering).
There are new requirements that will apply to DVA besides the ones we identify below. For example, DVA will have to establish its own internal whistleblower protection unit with a Presidential appointee running it, independent of OGC. But in this article, we’re comparing the procedural changes that apply for those of us down here in the weeds trying to hold employees accountable. If you need more details than we are providing, make yourself delirious reading the new law, found at https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1094/text.
Before we get into the details, we have to point out an amazing bit of word-twisting in this legislation (thanks to an astute participant in our MSPB Law Week seminar we just finished in San Francisco). Whereas nearly every other piece of legislation ever written relative to the civil service speaks of “days” (by common understanding to mean “calendar days”), this act sometimes specifies “business days” (b-days) and at other times simply specifies “days” (for purposes of this article, to be known as c-days.) In the charts below, we’re going to harmonize days for comparison purposes, so that we’re comparing apples to apples. You purists out there can do you own conversions from c-days to b-days, if that makes you happier.
So why the added confusing of specifying b-days sometimes and c-days at other times? Ah, my little Pollyannas. Welcome to the world of politically-created reality. If I say that something has been reduced from 30 days to 15 days, that sounds like a lot of reduction. However, if I say that something has been reduced from 22 days to 15 days (30 c-days are 22 b-days), not so much. It appears to this writer that someone wanted it to look like a greater change was being made by this new law than is really being made. We leave it up to you to come up with a better theory.
Procedures for Removing Bad Federal Employees; a Comparison
| Current Procedures | DVA SES | DVA GS | |
| Notice of proposed removal | All evidence and a right to representation | Same | Same |
| Minimum response to proposal period | 5 b-days | 7 b-days | 7 b-days |
| Minimum time to implement removal | 22 b-days | 15 b-days | 15 b-days |
| Maximum period to decide to remove | None | 15 b-days | 15 b-days |
| Appeal | MSPB | DVA grievance | MSPB |
| Time to file appeal | 22 b-days | [not specified] | 10 b-days |
| Evidence burden | Preponderance (51%) | [not specified] | Substantial (±40%) |
| Time to decide appeal | 120 c-days (goal) | 21 c-days | 180 c-days (firm) |
| Mitigation authority? | Yes | [not specified] | No |
| Challenge to appeal | Fed Circuit Court | Fed District Court | Fed Circuit Court |
There are some amazing little nuggets tucked away in here, if you know what to look for. As an example, by using the confusing b-day language, the law actually increases the minimum response time for a removal (and also for a short suspension). Dollars to donuts that was not the intent of the drafters. Separately, the language placing a time limit on MSPB’s review of an appeal by a GS employee refers to the decision by the “administrative judge.” Well, what about the time required for the three Board members to consider the petition for review of the AJ’s decision? Or, does the law’s language that the 180 c-day time limit applies to “a final and complete decision” of the AJ mean that there is no AJ decision review by the Board members?
From an employment law position, one of the most significant changes here is the reduction of the agency’s burden of proof in a misconduct removal from a preponderance of the evidence to the lower substantial evidence standard. Yet even if legally significant, a quick review of the reversed DVA cases that got Congress all riled up does not reveal a problem with the preponderance standard of proof. For example, in Graves v. DVA, CH-0707016-0180-J-1 (2016), an SES demotion case, the judge believed DVA’s evidence and upheld the charge. However, she found the penalty to be unreasonable because a superior to the appellant did the same thing that the appellant did, and he was not disciplined. I’m running stupid as to how lowering the evidence standard from preponderance to substantial would have caused the judge to reach a different conclusion. The judge agreed with the facts, but did not agree with DVA’s judgment about what to do with the facts.
By far, the most significant change for those of us on the front line is the no-mitigation of the penalty change. Probably half of the effort that goes into a removal case these days is defending the penalty. The stupid disparate-penalty Terrible Trilogy philosophy that the Board members dreamed up in 2010 has scared us all so much that agencies have become afraid to fire people because some other employee somewhere else in the agency did the same thing and was only suspended. Apparently, the Douglas Factors will no longer apply. Or, will they? Since the Board can no longer mitigate a penalty, will it just start setting aside the removal altogether if it disagrees with the seriousness of the charge? Or, will it uphold a removal for a five-minute tardy, outstanding performer, 20-year clean record, if DVA concludes that removal is the proper penalty? So many questions to be answered as the case law develops.
And that won’t be happening anytime soon because the Board decision-making machinery has been inoperable since the first week of the year. If we have usable precedent by this time next year, I’ll be amazed.
Finally, there are some statutory “fixes” in here that make no sense. For example, the act says that, “A covered individual so demoted may not be placed on administrative leave during the period during which an appeal (if any) under this section is ongoing, and may only receive pay if the covered individual reports for duty or is approved to use accrued unused annual, sick, family medical, military, or court leave.” Well, gee willikers, we never placed employees on administrative leave in that situation anyway. Might as well pass a law that says, “Things that fall must fall down, not up.”
It appears to us here at FELTG that the drafters of this legislation do not understand our system. I mean no disrespect by that statement as ours is a complicated statute. However, if we’re going to see any new big across-government legislative fixes to federal employment laws, for the good of our country, let’s all hope that the staffers on Capitol Hill who draft legislation like this take the time to figure out what changes will really make a difference. This is not something to gut-out and do what feels good. This is something crying out for professional thought and deep experience.
Operators are standing by: 1-888-at-FELTG. The first six minutes of consultation are free. [email protected].
