March 2016 Federal Employment Law Training Newsletter
As many of you readers know, the Federal Employment Law Training Group, LLC, began as a tiny little company, started by a bunch of guys who liked hanging out with each other, who thought it more fun to play with PowerPoint than to actually practice law. However, in the 15 years that have passed since that memorable “business plan” was scratched out on the back of a cocktail napkin, we’ve grown into a small-ish, but powerful, force in the federal civil service community. The White House frequently calls us for advice, both MSPB and EEOC pass their draft decisions through us for editing prior to issuance, and the Queen of England has asked us to take over as her social secretary. Yes, we’ve moved up in the world quite a bit and now, and unfortunately, are expected to act like a real business. And as real businesses have something called a Mission Statement, we decided that we would develop one, as well. So in case anyone ever asks you for our objective as a company, you can tell them this: To contribute to the improvement of the quality and efficiency of the government’s accountability systems. Sounds sort of grown-up, doesn’t it. We’ll use it the next time we’re asked to testify before Congress or if we’re ever nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Explicit, open-ended, flexible. Down-right mature, and we hope you are dutifully impressed. However, please keep in mind that our second objective, the one with which we actually founded this group, is to be sure we have enough income to cover the various bar bills of our instructors. So help us with that and we’ll continue to help you with the official Mission Statement. Check out www.FELTG.com for our upcoming seminars, register early and often, and we guarantee that the civil service will be a better place with us than without us.
Use and Misuse (and Beware March Madness)
By Barbara Haga Looking at the broader topic of misuse seemed a good segue this month, since we have spent a few months on credit card misuse. As you can imagine, Federal employees have misused a lot of things. Credit cards, vehicles, agency mail systems, and...
EEOC Files Two Private Sector Lawsuits Alleging Sexual Orientation Discrimination Based On Theory Asserted in Federal Sector Case
By Deryn Sumner Although most of us interact with EEOC on the federal sector side of the house, EEOC is also responsible for investigating charges of discrimination filed against covered private sector employers and for filing lawsuits in U.S. District Court on behalf...
The FELTG Certified Practitioner Program
Have you heard about FELTG’s Certified Practitioner program? For full-week participants in our open enrollment seminars, FELTG now offers certification as a trained and tested practitioner in the following specialized areas of federal employment law: MSPB Law and...
MSPB Attorney-Whistleblower Officially Wins IRA Appeal
By Deborah Hopkins You may have been following the articles I’ve been writing since late 2014 about the Korb case, which detailed the journey of a 25-year employee at MSPB who filed an Individual Right of Action (IRA) appeal alleging whistleblower reprisal. It...
Accommodating the Disabled Commuter
By William Wiley One of the confusing areas of disability accommodation law is the issue of how far does an agency have to go to accommodate a disabled employee who cannot travel to the workplace each day to do his job. A major reason that this is confusing is that...
Sanctions: Holding Agencies Accountable for Deficient EEO Investigations
By Deryn Sumner As promised, we’re going to continue to dive into our discussion of when sanctions can be awarded by EEOC by turning to instances where agencies fail to produce a complete report of investigation (ROI) during the formal complaint stage. Let’s start at...
Sometimes I Just Want to Sit Down and Cry
By William Wiley Here at old FELTG, we get some pretty attenuated questions; e.g., “But Bill, what if the individual is actually the hybrid spawn of a space alien and married to a retired federal employee? Is he still entitled to survivor benefits EVEN THOUGH HIS...
EEOC Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Regulations Related to Increasing Employment of Individuals with Disabilities in the Federal Government
By Deryn Sumner Over the past year or so, EEOC has sought public comment regarding revisions to the regulations at 29 CFR 1614, as well as its guidance regarding workplace retaliation. It now seeks public input regarding a proposed amendment to the regulations...
Learning Points Can Be Good or Bad
By William Wiley Several months ago, I wrote an article regarding a Board case in which the agency won the appeal in spite of there being significant mistakes in the proposal and decision letters, McCook v. HUD, MSPB No. SF-0752-14-0389-I-1 (August 3, 2015) (NP). I...