ksaldarini@govexec.com
Every Friday on GovExec.com, Legal Briefs reviews several cases that involve, or provide valuable lessons to, federal managers. We report on the decisions of a wide range of review panels, including the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority and federal courts.
Two GS-12 attorney-advisors at the Social Security Administration performed the work of GS-13 senior attorneys for a year. But SSA paid them at the GS-12 rate, since they hadn't been officially promoted.
Wondering if SSA had ever heard of equal pay for equal work, the attorney-advisors filed a grievance. An arbitrator found in the attorney-advisors' favor. SSA appealed to the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
The FLRA agreed with the arbitrator that the GS-12 employees "were constructively detailed to higher-graded positions" and awarded them retroactive temporary promotions and back pay.
Lesson: Don't make employees do the work without the promotion.
SSA v. AFGE, 55 FLRA No. 131, Federal Labor Relations Authority, Aug. 31, 1999
Brushed Off
Dianne M. McDonald, a WG-7 painter at the Lowell National Historic Park, in Lowell, Mass., applied for a WG-9 position as a painter in 1995. A man with similiar experience was selected for the job. McDonald didn't buy her supervisor's claim that the man was more qualified. She filed a sex discrimination complaint, but her agency issued a final decision denying her claim.
So McDonald appealed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which determined that the job selection was "tainted by unlawful sex discrimination." Several other female employees testified that McDonald's immediate supervisor, who was the selecting official for the job, was "old-fashioned" and that he had different standards for men and women. Men were allowed longer coffee breaks and a more lenient dress code, for example, and the supervisor purposely only interacted with men.
McDonald also testified that when she asked her supervisor what she needed to do to become a WG-9 level painter, he told her that the information was classified. The supervisor also gave McDonald her lowest performance rating ever in nine years immediately after she filed a complaint against him.
The EEOC decided the evidence showed the supervisor had an "animus towards women." The supervisor failed to prove that McDonald was technically unable to perform the job, a reason he gave for not hiring her. McDonald was awarded the promotion with back pay and benefits and the supervisor was ordered to take 16 hours of EEO sensitivity training.
Lesson: Supervisors don't paint a pretty picture when they apply different standards to men and women.
Dianne M. McDonald v. Department of Interior, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (01975031), August 27, 1999.