Legislation set for consideration in the House this week
(HR-3281) would among other things give the Merit Systems
Protection Board authority to take disciplinary actions
against management officials deemed to have retaliated
against whistleblowers. The language is in a general
whistleblower reform bill designed to make it easier for
employees to show that they suffered a job action for
having made disclosures of fraud, waste, mismanagement
or a danger to the public health and safety.
Under the measure, MSPB could order penalties including
removal, reduction in grade, debarment from federal
employment of up to five years, suspension or reprimand,
as well as a civil penalty of up to $1,000. MSPB would
have to impose disciplinary action if it finds that the
protected activity was the ‘primary motivating factor”
in the retaliatory action, unless the individual
demonstrates by a preponderance of the evidence that he
would have done the same in the absence of the whistleblowing.