The change was seen as a potential model for disciplinary policies government-wide. Image: mikeledray/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA coalition of federal employee unions has asked the Senate to reject a bill that would restore and in some ways expand special disciplinary powers granted to the VA under a 2017 law which the department stopped using earlier this year.
S-2158 would undermine recruitment and retention at the department as well as violate provisions in labor-management contracts, said the letter from a dozen unions to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. “In terms of civil service protections, we also strongly object to the proposed legislation that treats VA employees like second-class federal employees,” they wrote.
The 2017 law shortened notice and response time for employees facing discipline and the time that the MSPB can consider an appeal, lowered the department’s burden of proof in an appeal there to only “substantial” evidence, and limited the MSPB’s options to either overturning or affirming a penalty.
At the time, it was seen as a potential model for disciplinary policies government-wide. Although a broader law never was enacted, some of the same principles became part of a set of executive orders by the then-Trump administration. Those orders were stalled by court challenges and the Biden administration immediately revoked them after taking office.
The Senate bill and its counterpart (HR-4278) would restore those provisions and also would end a requirement to give employees an opportunity to improve prior to discipline for alleged poor performance, and apply to all supervisory employees the even more limited rights for SES members there under a separate law.
The House veterans committee passed its version in the summer over the objections of unions and the VA itself, which cited the same grounds it used for no longer using the authorities: that they resulted mainly in tying up the department in appeals and lawsuits—many of which the department lost, having the effect of limiting those powers—and that standard disciplinary procedures are adequate for its needs. The House bill has not yet advanced to floor voting.
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