Our nation is as politically divided as it has been in many years. Recent events have done little to remedy this fact. Instead, the astonishing leak of a Supreme Court draft ruling has sent waves of electricity running through workplaces everywhere. Emotionally and...
In part 1 of this post, we told readers about the April 13 Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) opinion in Smith v. Department of the Army. The board found in favor of a whistleblower who had publicized that military morticians had sent her late husband’s cremated...
As a federal employee, if you have an issue to resolve with your agency, you might ask for your union representative’s support. You have this right thanks to Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). And thanks to this right, your union rep can accompany...
We recently discussed the end of the five-year hiatus of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) with U.S. Senate approval of two board members President Biden had nominated. Two members present of the normally three-person board are enough to constitute a quorum...
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently released some good news. April saw the average processing time for retirement applications drop by two days. Unfortunately, that still means the office was taking a week longer, on average, to process applications than...
A recent report from Federal News Network (FNN) cast a spotlight on the rampant sexual harassment targeting military women. According to the report, the abuse is wholly pervasive. Nearly every woman in the military has experienced it, and they face it nearly...
Due to their work, firefighters face a much greater risk of cancer than other workers. Accordingly, 48 states have passed workers’ compensation laws that presume certain cancers, and other diseases, are work-related. These laws help firefighters qualify more easily...
The EEOC, OSHA and many other public agencies encourage whistleblowing. They want employees to let them know when their employers are engaged in dangerous, illegal or discriminatory behavior. But what happens after an employee blow the whistle on his or her employer,...
For more than five years, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) lacked a quorum at its highest level. During that time, the board was unable to issue final rulings on cases. Its backlog grew to over 3,600 cases. All of these were unresolved appeals from earlier...
Two recent news items cast a spotlight on the federal hiring process and the different qualities that can make for good candidates. First, there was the report from Federal News Network that Congress has advanced a bill that would reform the federal hiring process....
