August 2016 Federal Employment Law Training Group Newsletter
Every now and then I’m reminded of some of the craziness that gets filed by appellants on appeal to MSPB. This one made me laugh out loud. Buried down deep in the routine detritus of a decision where the Board says it considered everything in making its decision in Jones v. HHS, DE-3330-14-0427-I-1 (2015)(NP), I noted the following line:
We have considered the remaining arguments raised by the appellant on review including, but not limited to, his analysis of “The Odyssey” by Homer.
Bet you never thought about attaching one of your college term papers your petition for review, did you?
And speaking of fun at the Board, a belated congratulations to all those Board employees who got an extra four hours of administrative leave earlier this year. If I understand correctly, that was award to you (in the face of all those nasty Congressional concerns about the use of admin leave) not based on any increase in productivity, but because you reported how happy you are working at MSPB. Just a thought, but perhaps next survey time, report that you are thrilled! Maybe get eight hours off with pay.
Love you guys-
A FELTG Offer You Should Consider Seriously
By William Wiley Our FELTG team of instructors presents seminars throughout government, interfacing with many agencies each year. One of the things we’ve come to notice is that agencies often tell us that they add layers of extra steps to labor/employee relations...
OFO Applies Supreme Court’s Analysis in Young v. UPS to Federal Sector EEO Cases
By Deryn Sumner Last year, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Young v. UPS, 575 U.S. __ (2015), to provide guidance as to how claims under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act should be analyzed. In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Breyer, the Supreme Court held...
Transgender Discrimination on Agency Premises is a No-no
By Deborah Hopkins I taught a webinar a few weeks ago and covered a case that created quite a bit of conversation, and even some debate. Deryn Sumner wrote about this particular case in the FELTG newsletter a few months ago, but since not everyone had a chance to read...
A Refinement in the Due Process Dilemma
By William Wiley By now, we all know the problem. To satisfy the Constitutional mandate for due process, the Deciding Official in a proposed removal should not rely on anything not in the proposal notice or the employee’s response to the proposal. Violate due process,...
Misinformation Runs Rampant When the Internet Attempts to Understand Federal Sector Processing
By Deryn Sumner Earlier this week, I spent a few minutes poking around the EEOC’s website to see if there was anything of interest to share with you, our FELTG newsletter audience. I came across a press release titled, “What You Should Know about EEOC and Shelton D....
Employee Participation in Employee Assistance Programs
By Barbara Haga We recently had an inquiry from a reader about whether there is ever a time when a supervisor could legally direct an employee to seek Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services. This brought up a number of issues and considerations that seemed like a...
U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Virginia Rejects EEOC’s Holding in Baldwin
By Deryn Sumner Practicing before the EEOC’s federal sector administrative process is a funny thing full of contradictions. If there’s a Federal Rule of Evidence or Civil Procedure that benefits your argument, then you bring it up to the administrative judge as...