Court Cases

Employees of the Bureau of Prisons argued that they were entitled to overtime pay. They lost before the Court of Claims and a federal appeals court decision leads to a similar conclusion.

“Some aggrieved federal employees like to sue co-workers and supervisors in their individual capacity. In most cases this is basically a waste of time.”

A temporary employee applied for a permanent job and was selected–even though the announcement indicated the job was not open to temporary employees. She lost the job as a result so the employee filed an appeal contending that since she was now in a permanent job, she now had full appeal rights. The case went to federal court as the former temp tried to expand the coverage of the federal employee appeal process but the court did not buy the argument.

An employee of the IRS told the agency he had never left a job “under unfavorable circumstances.” A background investigation revealed that was not necessarily the case, at least in the agency’s opinion. The employee appealed his removal to the MSPB and to federal court but his legal quest did not get him reinstated.