The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's central human resources agency, is an independent agency within the Executive Branch. Its director and deputy director are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the civil rights statute prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) is an independent, quasi-judicial agency in the Executive Branch whose primary mission is to ensure that federal employees are protected against abuses by agency management, that agencies make employment decisions in accordance with the merit system principles, and that federal merit systems are kept free of prohibited personnel practices.
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent investigative and prosecutorial agency that litigates before the Merit Systems Protection Board and primarily helps to enforce three federal statutes: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, and the Hatch Act.
The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is an independent agency whose mission is to exercise leadership in the Executive Branch to prevent conflicts of interest on the part of government employees and to resolve conflicts that do occur.
The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) administers the federal labor relations program, performing the "third party" functions as an independent and neutral body.
Each of the federal appeals agencies employs various alternative dispute resolution techniques and settlement initiatives to adjudicate matters over which it has jurisdiction, and each is engaged in substantial outreach efforts to encourage potential litigants to use their respective ADR and settlement processes.
The Civilian Board of Contract Appeals has authority to resolve questions involving payment of claims for reimbursement of expenses that federal employees incurred while on official temporary duty travel and claims for reimbursement of expenses incurred in connection with relocation to a new duty station.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), with headquarters in Washington, D.C., and post offices, processing plants and other facilities across the country, is the second largest civilian employer in the country, with about 557,251 career employees in 2011.
Most postal employees belong either to labor unions or one of the management or supervisory organizations. The 1970 Postal Reorganization Act authorized collective bargaining on wages and working conditions generally under laws applying to the private sector and provided for binding arbitration if an impasse persists 180 days after the start of bargaining.