Supreme Court to hear case on federal employee grievances

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case about whether federal employees are permitted to bring employment-related grievances to federal court.

The decision would determine if employees are relegated only to internal arbitration and union negotiations for employment disputes, or if they can ask a court to rule on their situation.

The Supreme Court will hear an appeal to a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, whose jurisdiction includes much of the Western United States. That court ruled that federal workers could not bring their issues to federal court.

In the past, both the 11th Circuit and the Federal Circuit courts have handed down decisions saying that federal employees do have the right to seek judicial remedy to their grievances.

The case at hand, Whitman vs. Department of Transportation, involves Federal Aviation Administration employee Terry Whitman, who brought a case to federal court over a claim of overzealous drug testing.

The government argued that Whitman did not have the right to bring his case to federal court in the first place.

The National Employees Treasury Union, however, said that they had advocated successfully for legislation that granted federal employees that right. In 1994, Congress amended the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. It originally said that collectively bargained procedures "shall be the exclusive procedures for resolving grievances," and was amended to say that collective bargaining "shall be the exclusive administrative procedures for resolving grievances."

In its ruling, the 9th Circuit said the CSRA "does not confer federal court jurisdiction" for federal employees, as Whitman argued it did.

According to Ross Runkel, editor of the Employment Law Memo and professor of law emeritus at Willamette University College of Law, who specializes in employment law, the only cases that can be argued in the federal court system are those that Congress explicitly has said are allowed, such as cases that involve parties from two different states.

"From the 9th Circuit's point of view, we start with the idea that [federal employees] don't have jurisdiction," Runkel said. "What the 9th Circuit is looking for is language that says you guys have jurisdiction expressly."

The government successfully argued to the 9th Circuit that when Congress inserted the word "administrative" in its 1994 CSRA amendment, it did not explicitly authorize federal employees to sue in the courts.

In an amicus brief supporting Whitman's appeal to the Supreme Court, NTEU said "there is nothing in the language, structure or history of the CSRA to suggest that Congress intended the radical curtailment of federal employees' rights and the narrowing of federal court jurisdiction."

NTEU said it urged Congress to amend the CSRA in 1994 "precisely for the purpose" of allowing grievances to be brought to court.

According to Runkel, the main reason employees want the ability to bring grievances to federal court is to get access to a jury.

Employees "think they can get more out of the court system," Runkel said. "If they're in front of an arbitrator…they're not going to give you the million-dollar verdict."