Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.--The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) heard the objections of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) when it rejected an unfairly limited review process for federal employees dismissed due to a determination of ineligibility for a “sensitive position.”

“I am very pleased that the MSPB decision has clearly come down on the side of fair and equitable employee protections,” NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley said. “This ruling provides employees with a reasonable opportunity to identify errors in an agency’s assessment of their eligibility for a position.”

In Conyers v. Department of Defense and Northover v. Department of Defense, NTEU argued that employees removed as ineligible to hold a sensitive position, but who do not have a security clearance or access to classified information, should have all of the statutory appeal rights provided by Chapter 75 of the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA).

The Board agreed and rebuffed the notion that appeals of employees removed based on eligibility for a “sensitive position” should be limited to only verifying that they had received due process. If the narrow scope had been applied, an agency would have been able to remove an employee with virtually no oversight once it determined that the employee was “ineligible” to hold the “sensitive position.”

“This is an important matter affecting thousands of federal employees, particularly as agencies move to designate more and more positions as ‘sensitive’ national security positions, despite their lack of a security clearance,” Kelley said. “This ruling will ensure that an agency will not be able to abuse its authority, and employees will have a path to contest unfair eligibility determinations.”

As a leader in efforts to ensure that rules impacting federal employees are fair, NTEU was instrumental in bringing this inequitable process to the attention of MSPB. In these cases, NTEU participated as amicus, filing a brief and participating in oral argument. That oral argument was the first that the Board had held in 27 years.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.