Disabled employees' group sues Defense Department

A nonprofit organization representing thousands of disabled people who work in military mess halls is suing the Defense Department over a new policy that the group says could put the disabled workers on the street.

NISH, a Vienna, Va.-based nonprofit organization that links disabled employees with government jobs, filed suit last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. NISH is asking the court to put a stop to a new DoD policy that NISH said would threaten the jobs of 2,000 disabled workers at 60 mess halls across the country.

"It is ironic that at the very time President Clinton is calling for the federal government to serve as a model for hiring more people with disabilities, the Department of Defense is pursuing a policy that will actually diminish the number of people with disabilities employed," said Linda Schulte, vice president of NISH.

NISH is questioning a November 1998 DoD memorandum on contracting preferences. Schulte said a contracting officer at Ft. Lee, Va., said the memorandum prevents the fort from setting aside a mess hall contract for the disabled employees who currently hold it. Eighty employees at the Ft. Lee mess hall may lose their jobs, Schulte said. NISH is filing the suit to ensure disabled workers retain their preference for mess hall contracts, she said.

A Pentagon spokeswoman, who had not heard of the case, said the Defense Department does not normally comment on pending litigation.

Last month, in conjunction with National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Rudy de Leon, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the Pentagon is aiming to increase employment of people with disabilities from 1.4 percent to 2 percent of the Defense workforce. DoD employs more disabled workers than any other federal agency, according to Francis M. Rush Jr., principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for force management policy.