The letter came just ahead of the closing of the comment period on the proposed rules, under which appeals would be limited to a paper-only record, with hearings provided only at OPM’s discretion. Image: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA group of a dozen Senate Democrats active in civil service issue has called on OPM to drop proposed rules under which it would take over hearing of appeals from fired probationary employees, saying under such a process, “OPM could direct agencies to make probationary terminations and then adjudicate those same actions, eliminating any meaningful independence.”
“Probationary employees, mostly in the competitive service, long had narrow, but critical, appeal rights to the Merit Systems Protection Board. These protections covering discrimination based on partisan political reasons or marital status, and terminations based on conditions arising prior to federal employment were already limited in scope and difficult to prove,” they said in a letter.
“However, the proposed rule would harm probationary employees by replacing an independent MSPB review with an internal OPM process overseen by a political appointee, eliminating judicial review, eroding civil service protections and merit system principles, and impacting the recruiting of top talent for the federal workforce,” they wrote.
The letter came just ahead of the closing of the comment period on the proposed rules, under which appeals would be limited to a paper-only record, with hearings provided only at OPM’s discretion. Decisions could be challenged only within OPM and not to an outside body such as a court.
“As a result, this structure makes such claims nearly impossible to prove and, in practice, could amount to a sham review process. In a worst-case scenario, an administration could rely on external indicators—such as voter registration data or political activity—to justify removals, while denying employees any meaningful opportunity to challenge those decisions so long as discriminatory motives or reasons for termination were not explicit,” they wrote.
The late-December proposal followed rules that were proposed and then quickly finalized last year stating that an agency must affirmatively decide to retain an employee at the end of that period, and eliminating a prior requirement that terminated employees be notified of their deficiencies. The latter was a focus of lawsuits following the wide scale firing of probationary employees earlier in the year.
Conversions to Schedule P/C Pending; Acknowledgement Form Draws Attention
Federal Employee Survey Shows Plummeting Views on Engagement, Leadership, Performance
OPM Takeovers of RIF, Suitability Appeals Diminish Legal Rights, Unions Say
Judge Orders VA to Reinstate Union Contract for 320,000 Workers
Retirement Application Processing Backlog Nearly Doubles in Four Months
See also,
Calculating Service Credit for Sick Leave At Retirement
FERS Supplement vs The 10% Pension Bonus
How Your FERS, Social Security and TSP Payments Get Taxed
Where Should I Put My TSP in Retirement
