A document that the Defense Department has produced as
justification for appeal rights changes as part of its
national security personnel system has produced a somewhat
skeptical reaction as DoD continues to refine details of
personnel changes it outlined in proposed rules released
in February.
The document, titled “Merit Systems Protection Board
Mitigated Penalties in Department of Defense Adverse
Action Cases,” lists four cases in which DoD asserts
that MSPB improperly interfered with management’s rights
by reducing penalties the department chose to impose on
employees. Members of Congress, employee unions and
individual employees had been pressing the Pentagon to
list specific cases to justify changes that include
speeding up the appeals process and limiting MSPB’s
authority to lessen penalties.
The document lists four cases, involving: the firing of
a motor vehicle operator on charges of leaving unattended
a missile (which was unarmed but loaded with fuel), the
firing of a Defense Logistics Agency employee on charges
of theft; a sexual harassment case involving a senior
manager; and employee who failed to maintain certification
to handle chemical weapons materials.
However, in the first case, while the MSPB hearing officer
ordered the penalty mitigated, the full MSPB on appeal
upheld the firing. In the second case, the item involved
was rubber matting worth less than $5 from a scrap roll
over which the agency didn’t even maintain inventory, and
involved an employee with a long, good work record who was
given a 90-day suspension. MSPB reduced the removal in
the harassment case to a demotion to a non-supervisory
position and in the fourth case imposed a 30-day suspension.
