Fed. Govt. Unfair to its Employees

My sister was fired (involuntary resignation) from her job at the Internal Revenue Service while she was a recovering cancer patient and was never told that she was covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act/Rehabilitation Act. She was not given enough time or assistance to recoup from the surgery before being forced back to work. Nor did anyone in personnel inform her that she may have been eligible for temporary disability, even though she did ask however ineloquently.

Everyone says that federal employees cannot be fired, but it seems to me that only the ones who deserve to be fired keep their jobs and are promoted to positions where they cannot do any harm while those who work hard are held back until the day they are so worn down that they can no longer work the difficult work, at which time they are discarded.

The Merit Systems Protection Board seems to be on the side of management or just perhaps against anyone not represented by a lawyer. Also, they are uninterested in minor ideologies such as the law, their rules and regulations are contradictory, and their disregard for statutes that do not agree with their position is obvious. The Office of Special Counsel will not admit that they have jurisdiction over this issue even though their own rules state that they do.

Lastly, and most important, my sister has requested at least seven times a copy of her Official Personnel Folder since February of 1995 but has not received it as of yet. The Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act may be a good idea, but without some sort of penalty incentive, it is a law without teeth. Since the agency and/or people responsible for policing this act are the same agency and/or people who would not and did not give you the requested information in the first place, you are, in essence, running in circles.

Subsequently, the President has stated that the government is going to get rid of a substantial amount of federal employees, but because all of the employees who are eligible for early buyouts would not come close to the number of jobs being eliminated, where are the rest coming from?

I believe my sister is now fighting against what will be done to the remaining people. She was harassed, lied to, talked about behind her back, and denied needed information. This is what the federal government has done through the Merit Systems Protection Board appeal, and if the U.S. Court of Appeals allows this as acceptable, then the federal government will proceed to reduce federal jobs unchecked.

-Frank Morgan