Posted on 11/24/2018 8:52:50 AM PST by Olog-hai
Mark Robbins gets to work at 8:15 each morning and unlocks the door to his office suite. He switches on the lights and the TV news, brews a pot of coffee and pulls out the first files of the day to review.
For the next eight hours or so, he reads through federal workplace disputes, analyzes the cases, marks them with notes and logs his legal opinions. When he’s finished, he slips the files into a cardboard box and carries them into an empty room where they will sit and wait. For nobody.
He’s at 1,520 files and counting. […]
Robbins is a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial federal body designed to determine whether civil servants have been mistreated by their employers. The three members are presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed for staggered seven-year terms. After one member termed out in 2015 and a second did so in January 2017, both without replacements lined up, Robbins became the sole member and acting chairman. The board needs at least two members to decide cases.
That’s a problem for the federal workers and whistleblowers whose 1,000-plus grievances hang in the balance, stalled by the board’s inability to settle them. When Robbins’ term ends on March 1, the board probably will sit empty for the first time in its 40-year history. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
At least the current holder of the last position in there does not blame Trump for his so-called “predicament”.
$155,000 a year.
I would have stuck my head in the oven a long time ago.
Well, he does come in every day and do his work. That is not really excessive pay for a skilled attorney in Washington DC.
These are federal work place disputes (2nd paragraph in article), so they are mistreated by the Federal Government. Isn't that what the public service union provide? Why the redundancy?
Isn’t there a no hire, no replacement of federal employees to help bring that part of our bloated government under control?
Three options: (1) stick your head in a microwave oven; (2) jump out of a basement window; and (3) slash your wrists with an electric razor.
LOL
I would mark them all with “No Opinion”, do the minimum for the day, and then play desk pool.
Killing time, about the toughest job there is!
Why government workers NEVER look out the window before lunch?
So they will have something to do in the afternoon.
Wow, look out the window or at the smartphone; tough choice.
If only the offices of the AP and NYT were as empty as this one is.
I would have stuck my head in the oven a long time ago.
Natural gas has so much less CO, that it just won’t do the job.
Only $155k a year, but golden retirement benefits.
There is a large number of federal employees who are not covered by collective bargaining agreements. Supervisors and managers make up a bunch and employees with security clearances are another group.
Generally MSPB cases are based on wrongful termination claims. Its how you appeal a termination if you are not a union employee and have no right to arbitration.
Anyone who's case goes before the MSPB knows they have little chance of succeeding, the gov wins 90% of the cases.
Not all Federal Employees are covered by Unions and often Unions can’t afford to take all disputes to Arbitration. There are Administrative Law Judges who work for the MSPB that usually hear the initial cases. It is only when the appellant doesn’t like the ALJ’s decision that (s)he appeals to the Full MSPB Board which this poor guy was apparently a member of. Those decisions are now in limbo in those cardboard boxes.
He should file a grievance. They left him alone to do the work of 3. That’s abuse. :-)
Jimmy Carter and Cover Your Arse (CYA)! Democrats always grow government, it is their base and that is their natural inclination. CYA comes to play as a 3 person panel gives enough cover to allow any complaints to be ignored.
Lawyers making work for other lawyers is what started this mess under brain dead Peanut Farmer....
Top shelf lawyer in DC bills out at $1,500 per hour.
“Three options: (1) stick your head in a microwave oven; (2) jump out of a basement window; and (3) slash your wrists with an electric razor.”
Out of handbook written by ? Joe Biden ? That Cortez gal?
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