The Merit Systems Protection Board has granted a stay requested by the Office of Special Counsel prohibiting enforcement of gag clauses in settlement agreements between the Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General and four of its former employees, OSC has announced.
It alleges the employees were coerced into signing an agreement under threat of harm to their career prospects and future employment.
According to OSC, the agreements prohibit employees from voluntarily communicating with OSC or Congress, and they were warned that negative performance appraisals would be shared with prospective employers if they did not to sign the nondisclosure agreements.
Under the stay order, OIG senior management must cease personnel actions it took or threatened to take for 45 days while OSC investigates the allegations.
MSPB found that an agreement restricting employees’ ability to report wrongdoing is a change in working conditions and is therefore a personnel action under the Whistleblower Protection Act.
