Common sense case for due process in the federal workforce

Now more than ever, we are witnessing a spike in misleading and mean-spirited attacks on federal employees’ right to due process. This is a vital and eminently practical system that holds employees and management accountable to our nation’s ideals of an apolitical civil service, and one that is worth fighting for.

Fairness and transparency are the two most fundamental principles underpinning the federal personnel system. Employees are hired based on their merits and disciplined or fired based on the proven facts of the case.

{mosads}This right to due process, which is enshrined in the Constitution, prevents agencies from making hiring and firing decisions based on favoritism, political affiliation, race, or other reasons totally unrelated to an employee’s ability to do the work. This commitment to fairness has given the federal government one of the most diverse workforces in America, with a pay gap between male and female employees that is half the size of the gap in the private sector.

Due process rules aren’t designed to make it harder for agencies to discipline employees. In fact, agencies use due process to prove why a particular punishment is warranted. Under the current system, agencies have fired more than 77,000 full-time, permanent employees since 2000 due to performance and/or conduct reviews.

So let’s be clear – due process rules benefit everyone, not just the occasional “problem employee.” Due process protects good employees from being punished wrongly or unfairly and ensures punishments against bad employees are justified. It’s important to keep in mind that this was not always the case.

Before this system was established early in the 20th century, many bosses in the federal government demanded bribes from employees as a condition of their employment – meaning employees were more concerned with currying favor with their supervisors than being good stewards of our taxpayer dollars. The “spoils system,” as it was known, was governed by political patronage and corruption rather than merit and rule of law.

Sadly this history is lost on many lawmakers today. Under the thin veil of “accountability,” House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) recently introduced a bill that would strip Department of Veterans Affairs employees of their basic workplace protections and expedite the firing process. I may have missed something, but what does firing housekeepers and veterans benefits claims specialists have to do with improving access to quality health care?

Passing this bill would be an enormous and consequential mistake because it would give crooked managers a potent new tool to silence whistleblowers exposing fraud, partisan politics, and abuse in the workplace. In fact, countless VA whistleblowers have faced management retaliation as a result of exposing secret waitlists last year. What makes Miller think the next time around will be any different? Without due process protections in place to protect these workers from retaliatory firing, whistleblowers will be reluctant to speak up the next time they see something unlawful.

Due process has protected the jobs of many hardworking employees who have faced extreme disciplinary actions. Dr. Michelle Washington was retaliated against for sounding the alarm about a doctor shortage at the Wilmington VA Medical Center, but the charges were rolled back after the union proved that the disciplinary actions were unfounded. Had there been no due process to rely on, Kathi Dahl would not have been able to testify before Congress about an outbreak of Legionella at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center after management advised her to call-in sick that day.

The fact is, for the handful of unfortunate cases due process detractors recycle over and over again, there are hundreds or thousands of others where good people were protected and wrongs were righted.

Federal workers’ Constitutional rights don’t stop when they enter the workplace, and the public they serve benefits greatly as a result. Stopping partisan politics, favoritism, and cronyism from interfering in the government’s work is more than just a process – it’s common sense.

Cox is national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 670,000 federal and D.C. government employees nationwide.