Ask FELTG
Have a question about federal employment law? Read below to find answers - or ask a question of your own.Ask FELTG: Can Agency Fire Employee Who Took Part in Capitol Siege? You Decide.
By Deborah Hopkins, January 11, 2021 Unless you were living under a rock on a deserted island without Wi-Fi for the last week, you saw the horrifying sight of a mob of American citizens, in protest of the results of the Presidential election, rioting at the United...
Ask FELTG: Do managers need to tell employees how to pass each standard and critical element during the performance improvement period?
December 7, 2020 Q: Do managers need to tell employees how to pass each standard and critical element during the performance improvement period? A: The performance plan is what tells the employee the expectations for each critical element. During the performance...
Ask FELTG: Are holidays counted as hours for Paid Parental Leave?
This question came to Ask FELTG with the following hypothetical example: The expected due date for a baby is December 26, 2020 and the employee is hoping to take Paid Parental Leave from December 11, 2020 through sometime in March 2021. During this period, we have...
Ask FELTG: Is it permissible for an agency to tell a complainant that her coworker will be suspended? Is this disclosure a violation of the coworker’s privacy?
This question came in as a response to FELTG President Deborah Hopkins’ recent article Can Delaying Discipline Cause EEO Liability for an Agency? in our August newsletter. And here's the answer: When it comes to federal employee discipline, unless classified/secret...
Ask FELTG: Can an agency consider an employee’s criminal record or previous misconduct when assigning that person to a position?
Crime rates dropped suddenly at the beginning of the pandemic. However, several sources are reporting that those rates have started to soar again. Anecdotally, it certainly seems to be the case based on the letters that have come into the old Ask FELTG mailbox...
Ask FELTG: Who is permitted to be a Deciding Official when the agency is going through a reorganization?
This question came into the FELTG mailbag with this hypothetical situation: A direct supervisor of an employee proposed discipline as the Proposing Official and that person’s second-line supervisor was deemed the Deciding Official. However, during the 30-day period...
Ask FELTG: Are Douglas Factors now a requirement for all disciplinary actions as opposed to just adverse actions?
There’s often confusion around the terms “discipline” and "adverse actions,” because some agencies define those terms differently. Under the law there are actually two categories of adverse actions -- appealable and non-appealable adverse actions. 5 USC § 7103 defines...
Ask FELTG Answers Your Questions About COVID-19
April 28, 2020 Over the past few weeks, FELTG has received numerous questions about COVID-19, both via email and during our webinars and virtual training events. Here are three of the more common questions, along with answers and guidance, courtesy of the EEOC’s...
Ask FELTG: Should an agency remove a hypothetical employee for current misconduct when he’s separately being investigated for a security clearance issue, a matter in which the agency is considering an indefinite suspension? Or should the agency wait until the security clearance issue has been resolved? The misconduct is unrelated to the security clearance.
Let's add a little more context to this hypothetical scenario. The agency requires employees to maintain a security clearance as a mandatory condition of employment. When someone's security clearance is suspended pending review, the agency usually indefinitely...
Ask FELTG: What do you think about the recent precedential Federal Circuit case Sánchez v. VA, No. 2018-2171 (Feb. 10, 2020) and its establishing that settlement agreements don’t last forever?
Believe it or not, while this case might be designated as precedential, it’s actually not a precedent-setting position on the topic. The majority holding actually tracks old MSPB case law, and, we would offer, common sense. (And also, an old edition of Farnsworth.)...