The chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board has sent a letter to Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., seeking to brief him on an expected flood of appeals on personnel actions if sequestration results in thousands of federal employees being furloughed or terminated.
The letter notes that MSPB is responsible for adjudicating appeals of "adverse personnel actions" by federal agencies including removals, suspensions for more than 14 days, reductions in pay, demotions, and furloughs.
Most federal employees who are subjected to adverse personnel actions have a statutory right to appeal that action to MSPB, Susan Tsui Grundmann wrote, noting that in fiscal 2012 MSPB issued 7,585 decisions, including 6,523 initial decisions issued by the regional and field offices, and 1,050 decisions issued at headquarters.
MSPB hears appeals by federal employees of"furloughs of 30 days or less, and sequestration could result in hundreds of thousands of them. This could "create a domino effect that could seriously affect the operations of federal agencies, as they divert resources from fulfilling mission-critical work to litigating furloughed employees’ appeals," wrote Tsui Grundmann. She noted that the agency might have to furlough some of its own workforce as well.
