Ensuring Workforce and Whistleblower Protections for the SES
Ensuring workplace rights and avenues for redress is a premier issue for the Senior Executives Association (SEA). SEA remains concerned that members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) lack a forum for adjudicating workplace disputes and adequate whistleblower protections.
The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) has lacked a quorum since January 2017. As a result, more than 3,000 federal workers have been deprived of an opportunity for justice and an adjudicative hearing before this independent body, leaving both them and their former agencies in limbo.
While millions of employees can still seek union arbitration, federal managers lack other forums to enforce their workplace rights.
In the last administration, SEA expressed caution regarding the slate of nominees – comprising of two Republicans and one Democrat, as Congressionally mandated. However, we maintained that the ultimate goal is restoring a quorum and making headway on the large case backlog.
SEA has done considerable outreach to Congressional Committees and the White House to ensure a quorum is restored in a timely manner with MSPB Members who respect employee and manager rights.
With a new Congress and White House, SEA teamed up with other management organization in the Government Managers Coalition to advocate for a restored quorum at the MSPB and propose a slate of nominees.
Several of these suggested individuals were also submitted by our colleagues in labor and civil society, highlighting their universally recognized qualifications in the federal community.
Cathy Harris, Kator, Parks, Weiser & Harris, PLLC
Julia A. Clark, former labor attorney & Democrat MSPB nominee by President Trump
Krista Boyd, General Counsel, House Committee on Oversight & Reform
Tristan Leavitt, MSPB General Counsel & acting chief executive and administrative officer
SEA has also engaged with lawmakers to strengthen whistleblower protections at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Senior Executives at the VA were stripped of whistleblower protections in 2017. SEA is working directly with congressional drafters on legislation to be introduced with appropriate language for restoring whistleblower rights and anti-retaliation protections for VA Senior Executives.
Defending whistleblowers, preventing retaliation, and respecting employee rights starts at the top and that means ensuring the SES class is protected as well as all other employees. SEA is committed to defending SES workplace and employee protections and equitable access to forums for defending those protections.
The column part of the FEDforum, an initiative to unite voices across the federal community. The FEDforum is a space for federal employee groups to share their organizations’ initiatives and activities with the FEDmanager audience.
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