whistleblower protections
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It's been a busy couple of months for the Veterans Affairs Department. But VA Secretary David Shulkin said he wouldn't have it any other way. He's pushing the VA workforce to embrace risk and begin making bold, fundamental changes to the way it does business. He said he sees the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act as one bold change that will improve the department's employee morale and recruitment efforts.
June 20, 2017 -
The executive order establishes the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protections as a new entity within VA. The new office will identify barriers and duplicative processes and resources to quickly disciplining and firing VA employees for poor performance or misconduct.
April 27, 2017 -
Several good government and oversight organizations, along with eight individual whistleblowers, wrote to House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) in support of the whistleblower protections included in the VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act. But they had some tough criticism for the changes the bill would make to due process rights for VA executives.
September 16, 2016 -
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee unanimously approved the Transit Benefits Modernization Act to let federal employees in the D.C. metro area user “digital transportation companies” such as Uber or Lyft, to get to work during the subway repair effort.
September 15, 2016 -
The Office of Special Counsel offered a new approach for analyzing whistleblower retaliation cases, as the agency released its third amicus brief opposing higher burdens on whistleblowers. This particular case involved an employee at the Veterans Affairs Department.
August 05, 2016 -
July 1 will mark exactly three years since stronger whistleblower protections went into place for employees of defense contractors.
June 06, 2016 -
The Office of Special Counsel decided not to go forward with a proposed regulation that would have expanded the rights of contractors' employees to submit complaints to OSC.
January 07, 2016 -
OSC sends a letter directly to the President outlining mismanagement within VA and targeting of whistleblowers for disciplinary action.
September 23, 2015 -
On this week's Your Turn radio show, an encore presentation of host Mike Causey's interview with OPM Director Katherine Archuleta. She discusses the status of phased retirement, the retirement-claims backlog and other civil service issues. Andy Medici from the Federal Times joins the show live to discuss President Obama's executive order banning discrimination among LGBT employees of contractors. June 18, 2014
June 18, 2014 -
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are not entitled to a key civil-service protection under a recent ruling by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington. Andres Grajales, deputy general counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees who represented two federal employees in the case, said the ruling gives agencies a weapon against employees.
August 27, 2013 -
Government contractors with security clearances, such as Edward Snowden, aren't legally protected from whistleblowing even by going through the proper channels. But John Mahoney, of the law firm Tully Rinckey, said Snowden should have defaulted to the standard whistleblowing procedure used by government employees in the intelligence community, who are protected under the law.
June 17, 2013 -
The Senate unanimously approved a bill Tuesday expanding protections for federal whistleblowers. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, authored and introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the chairman of a Senate subcommittee on the federal workforce, updates a 1989 law protecting government whistleblowers.
May 09, 2012 -
Experts say all the focus on Capitol Hill and within agencies will lead to better management and give more respect to whistleblowers. Carolyn Lerner, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, said the attention on the misdeeds of the Public Buildings Service would bolster the need for stronger ethics and integrity.
April 20, 2012 -
Washington attorney Bill Bransford joins host Mike Causey to answer questions that affect whistleblowers in the federal government. April 18, 2012
April 18, 2012 -
The American Federation of Government Employees has asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate the case of a VA doctor who believes she was unfairly targeted by superiors due to her critical Senate testimony.
April 17, 2012