The MSPB has rejected a Commerce Department employee’s attempt to use an uncommon but not unprecedented challenge to a disciplinary action: claiming it was in retaliation for a disclosure that the employee didn’t make until later.
The employee was terminated during his probationary period but filed an “individual right of action” whistleblower retaliation claim, arguing that the firing was reprisal for his disclosing delays in processing his claims for reimbursement of his travel expenses.
The hearing officer dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction, holding that the claimed disclosures were not sufficiently detailed and specific in that the employee had not identified a law, rule, or regulation that the agency had violated.
The full merit board agreed with the outcome, although it said he had identified a regulation that the agency may have violated.
“This disclosure could not have been a contributing factor in the appellant’s termination because the disclosure occurred after the termination,” the MSPB said in a summary of the decision.
