Federal Daily - May 29, 2008

Supreme Court: Feds Protected from Retaliation for EEO Age Complaints

The Supreme Court issued a May 27 decision extending to federal employees the same protections against retaliation for alleging age discrimination as are presently enjoyed by private-sector workers. The decision came in the case of U.S. Postal Service worker Myrna Gomez-Perez, who alleged retaliation after she filed an equal employment opportunity age discrimination case. After she filed the complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the plaintiff said she suffered various reprisals from her supervisors. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court supported a broad reading of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), holding that the law prohibits retaliation for filing age discrimination complaints just as it prohibits age discrimination itself. The ADEA was extended to the federal work force in 1974. “This decision is a very welcome departure from a court that is often conservative with respect to federal employee rights,” said National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley. In a friend-of-the-court brief, the union warned of gaps in employee protections against retaliation that would exist if the ADEA were to be narrowly construed, Kelley noted. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1276.

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DoD Releases Proposed NSPS Revisions; Union Skeptical

DoD and the Office of Personnel Management last week released proposed joint revisions to its heavily criticized pay-for-performance system, the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). Though the proposed regulations—published in the Federal Register last week—claim to restore the collective bargaining rights and independent appeal mechanisms eliminated in the original NSPS, at least one union says they actually would continue to deprive workers of their rights. Despite language designed to restore those rights that was included in an appropriations bill passed last winter, DoD is trying to “avoid future bargaining” in many key areas, the American Federation of Government Employees said in a written statement. “While we are still examining the new NSPS proposed regulations, the thrust appears to be an attempt to end run what Congress recently enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act which was signed into law in January,” the AFGE statement said. This appropriations law calls for placing NSPS under existing federal collective bargaining rules—and demands that no more than 40 percent of annual pay-raise money be distributed under NSPS as bonus pay. The remaining 60 percent must be allocated as straight pay raises. Comments must be received by on or before June 23, 2008. To view the proposal in detail, go to: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-11364.htm

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GAO: DoD Must Improve Licensure Assistance for Reservists

DoD needs to do a better job tracking and providing assistance to reservists who want to maintain their professional civilian licenses or certificates while they are serving on active duty, said a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released May 27. It’s impossible to tell how many of the 434,000 reservists deployed to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq require such assistance because DoD doesn’t track this information, GAO said. And while models exist that DoD could emulate, it has yet to establish relief policies and practices specifically designed to assist reservists in maintaining their civilian credentials, the report said. Some states have adopted specific protections for reserve force members. Under Ohio law, for example, any holder of an expired license or certificate granted by the state that was not renewed because of service in the armed forces is granted a renewal at the usual cost without penalty or re-examination within six months of an honorable discharge or separation. To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d08790r.pdf.

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NASA Employee Suspended for Hatch Act Violation

A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) employee has been suspended for 180 days without pay for violations of the Hatch Act, which restricts the political activity of federal executive branch employees, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced last week. The unnamed employee, who worked at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, entered into an agreement accepting the suspension after OSC found that the employee had used his NASA e-mail account to send partisan political e-mails and made partisan political postings to his blog while on duty. He also posted to a blog an invitation to a fundraising event, soliciting a $20 contribution for a partisan political organization, OSC said. The suspension began March 30, 2008. To see more, go to: www.osc.gov/documents/press/2008/pr08_04.htm.

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