The Merit Systems Protection Board is an independent, quasi-judicial agency whose mission is to protect federal employees from abuses by agency management and to ensure that managers make decisions in accordance with the merit system principles. The MSPB’s caseload includes: appeals of personnel actions (furloughs, demotions, suspensions and removals) over which the Board has jurisdiction; complaints filed under the Whistleblower Protection Act, Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, and the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act; and actions brought by the Office of Special Counsel, including Hatch Act violations.
EEOC
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is responsible for ensuring nondiscrimination in employment decisions mandated by a variety of federal statutes, including: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibiting discrimination against people 40 or over, the Equal Pay Act requiring employees to be compensated equally for substantially similar work, without regard to gender, Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act banning discrimination based on disability in private sector, state and local employment; and Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination against disabled federal employees.
OSC
The Office of Special Counsel is an independent, federal investigative and prosecutorial agency under the Executive branch. OSC is primarily responsible for protecting the rights of federal employees under the Whistleblower Protection Act and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Additionally, OSC advises on and enforces the prohibitions on a federal employee’s political activity that are included under the Hatch Act.
OPM
The Office of Personnel Management manages current federal personnel and plans for the future needs of the federal workforce. OPM’s responsibilities include: recruiting employees for positions with the Federal government; advising different agencies on human resources programs; working with different departments to develop performance and management programs; promoting nondiscrimination in federal employment, and; developing strategies to enable federal supervisors to meet their goals through effective human resource management.
DOL
The US Department of Labor is an agency charged with improving the working conditions, increasing employment opportunities, and protecting health care and retirement benefits of working Americans. In this capacity, the Department of Labor administers several federal labor laws, including those designed to promote safe working conditions, nondiscrimination in employment, minimum wage and overtime payment and unemployment insurance. Links to information on DOL programs that are of interest to employees have been included below.
USERRA
Strengthens and expands the employment rights of all US service members.
FMLA
Permits eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of leave to attend to certain circumstances, including:
VETS
The Veterans’ Employment and Training Service was created to maximize veteran’s employment opportunities, protect employment rights and to provide Veterans with the resources and services to succeed in the 21st century workforce.
VEOA
The Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998, as amended, provides veterans Federal job opportunities that might otherwise be unavailable to them. The law requires that agencies allow eligible veterans to compete for vacancies advertised under the agency's merit promotion procedures when the agency is seeking applications from individuals outside its own workforce. VEOA also requires all merit promotion announcements that are open to outside applicants to include a statement that eligible veterans may apply.
The law also establishes a new redress system for veterans eligible under VEOA and prohibits an agency from knowingly taking or failing to take a personnel action where doing so would violate a statutory or regulatory Veterans' preference requirement.
OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is responsible for protecting American workers from unsafe working conditions. To that end, OSHA staffs more than 200 offices throughout the country to monitor working conditions nationwide. OSHA conducts workplace inspections, administers programs offering technical assistance and consultation, and establishes and enforces the standards that employers must adhere to in order to protect their employees.
Office of Government Ethics
The Office of Government Ethics is an Executive Agency established to prevent and resolve conflicts of interest that may arise for government employees.
SSA
The Social Security Administration traces its roots back to the Social Security Act of 1935. Over the next 70 years, the organization has undergone several changes. Today, however, the SSA is responsible for administering a broad range of government programs designed to combat economic insecurity, including Social Security retirement benefits and disability insurance. Additionally, the SSA administers the “Ticket to Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999” which gives disabled citizens a voucher to purchase rehabilitative and employment support services.
FERS
Federal Employees Retirement System: Many federal employees participate in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), a retirement program that helps provide financial security federal employees and their families.
FERS became effective January 1, 1987. Almost all new employees hired after December 31, 1983, are automatically covered by FERS and some other Federal employees who are not covered by FERS may have the option of transferring into the plan. The Components FERS is a three-tiered retirement plan comprised of: Social Security Benefits, Basic Benefit Plan, and the Thrift Savings Plan.
Federal employees pay full Social Security taxes and make a small contribution to the Basic Benefit Plan. In addition, the agency puts an amount equal to 1% of basic pay, each pay period, into your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) account. Additionally, employees can make tax-deferred contributions to the TSP and the government will match a portion of that contribution.
CSRS
Federal employees not covered under FERS are generally covered under the Civil Service Retirement System. CSRS is more akin to a traditional pension plan, in that contributions and returns are not effected by market fluctuations, as they are in the FERS system. Under CSRS, retired employees are paid an annuity that is based upon their retirement age and years of service. CSRS also includes a survivor annuity to provide for the spouse of a deceased federal employee.
Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
The FRTIB is an independent agency established by the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Act of 1986 to administer the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), one of the three parts of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System. The TSP gives Federal employees the opportunity to save for additional retirement security. The TSP is a tax-deferred defined contribution plan similar to a private sector 401(k) plan.
Federal Employment Law Training Group
FELTG is a non-profit organization established and incorporated to provide training and other educational programs for the federal government community, including attorneys, EEO specialists, discrimination complaint counselors and investigators, labor and employee relations specialists, and interested supervisors and managers.
Specific course descriptions and schedules may be viewed by clicking "Seminars" to the left. Major subject matter areas include:
- EEOC and MSPB procedures and practices
- Discrimination law in the federal sector
- The law of discipline in the federal workplace
- EEO counselor and investigator training
- Hearing strategies, skills, and practices
- Link: www.feltg.com
Dewey Publications, Inc.
Dewey Publications is a small publishing company located in Arlington, Virginia. Our materials cover federal civil service law issues, and all our authors are prominent practitioners in their respective fields of practice. We have been publishing in this area of law for over 20 years, and are a leading source of information for attorneys, pro se appellants, agency representatives, and federal managers. Orders for our publications may be placed by means of Internet, fax, telephone, or mail and we do accept government IMPAC cards.
