The End of Expertise, Corporate Memory, and the Rule of Law
This happened to our son just a couple of weeks ago. He was locked out of the building on a Monday morning. Working as a contractor for the U.S. State Department, he was a team member responsible for preparing the health care analytics for PEPFAR, the national/international HIV prevention program. PEPFAR, established by the George W. Bush Administration, was considered the most successful disease prevention program in history having saved an estimated 26 million lives. Contractors and probationary employees do not have the same rights as full-time permanent employees. They are low hanging fruit. However, the slash and burn targeting the federal work force without any attempt at due process continues. The majority of employees are not at-will.
UNDERSTANDING FEDERAL EMPLOYEE DUE PROCESS RIGHTS
The right to due process originally comes from the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the federal government can’t legally deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property without following a specific procedure.
For federal government employees, employment is, in essence, a property right. This means that civil servants can’t be disciplined or removed from their roles without going through a specific process.
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which aimed to foster a merit-based, nonpartisan federal workforce, established the steps of this process.
Federal employee due process rights in employment actions generally consist of the following:
Notice of proposed action—the right to be informed in advance of an agency’s intention to alter employment, e.g., by removal, suspension, or demotion; and
Opportunity to respond—the right to make an oral or written response to an agency’s allegations of misconduct or performance issues before a final decision on the action is made.
Federal employees also have the right to appeal their case to a neutral entity if they feel the adverse action was enacted unfairly. The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) is the neutral body that oversees these cases and reviews whether federal agencies have adhered to due process requirements. The MSPB is vital in holding agencies accountable and safeguarding employees’ rights.
FEDLAW!
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We feel your pain.
Our Doris is on edge wondering if all the research for the new promising treatment of early on-set and long term Alzheimer’s cases will be halted as funding is removed and the agencies in D.C are fired and eliminated. She and her co-researchers were ordered to go back through ten years of research and testing trials and remove all references to DEI terminology. No reference to African Americans, Hispanic, Native American or Asian folk. This is ludicrous because testing of the new medication regimens must include men, women and everyone of all ethnic and racial categories.
One of my MAGA family members scoffed that the majority of of voters made it clear that they endorse the current administrations efforts and that there is no need to follow previous due process laws and regulations.
The parallel to 1930s Germany is clear. We are in the throws of a coup to establish a nationalistic dictatorship to make “America Great Again”.