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Fired During Probation? Why Federal Employees Have Few Legal Options
5K views
Feb 22, 2025
In this FedSmith video, we delve into the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) and explore why a large federal national union supported its passage in the 1970s. The video discussion addresses the changes sought by the CSRA. Also, while the CSRA brought significant changes to federal employment practices, it also imposed limitations on appeal rights for probationary employees. We’ll explain how probationary employees face challenges in appealing terminations and why seeking redress in Federal court is often not an initial option under the CSRA for federal employees or for federal employee unions. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insights on federal labor law! Related Articles Appeals After Firing Probationary Employees: What Are Their Rights? https://www.fedsmith.com/2025/02/21/fired-probationary-employees-appeal-rights/ Judge Allows Layoffs of Federal Employees to Proceed https://www.fedsmith.com/2025/02/20/judge-allows-layoffs-of-federal-employees-to-proceed/ Related Video https://youtu.be/HJtToA5lHss 0:00 Introduction 1:50 History of CSRA 2:38 Unfair? 3:13 Purpose of the CSRA 5:23 Failings of CSRA
View Video Transcript
0:00
my name is Ralph Smith and for those of
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you who seen some of our earlier videos
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on events that have been occurring
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around the federal government in the
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last month or so you probably already
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have seen a couple of our videos we've
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been viewed by a few 100,000 people and
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we appreciate the confidence people have
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and looking to Fed Smith for information
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on the government reorganization
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resizing restructuring optimization
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whatever it is you choose to call it our
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goal I'm an author with fed Smith and in
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writing articles or doing videos our
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goal is to try to explain what's going
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on it's not to take a political position
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one way or the other for or against but
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just to say this is what's happening
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this is how it's being occur how it's
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occurring this is how it may be able to
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occur under the civil service or
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format this video today is designed to
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explain something about the civil
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service reform act that's important to
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those people who are being terminated uh
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probably important to some who are left
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because the civil service reform act
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controls a lot of what's going on
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fitsmith did a video on probationary
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employees and what was lying ahead for
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them under this reorganization project
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that's going on in doing videos
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especially some that are viewed by tens
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of thousands of people it's it's easy to
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make a comment and actually we
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appreciate the comments we learn from it
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we find out what people like what they
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don't like some of the comments are very
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good some are not very favorable and
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that's just the way it is when you're
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dealing with a large audience we try to
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be objective straightforward and that's
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what the purpose is I'm not a lawyer I
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have worked with the CSRA actually the
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first training class I did was the on
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the CSRA for a group of Union officials
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uh before it became law the Civil
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Service of formac was passed in
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1978 and I ended up I was working at the
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time for part of the labor department
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which became the federal labor relations
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Authority shortly after CSRA was passed
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I got a promotion and went to a new
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agency at least a newly renamed agency
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called the office of personnel
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management and my job was to go around
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the country largely in the DC area uh
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doing training classes on what CSR is
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what it was what it stood for how it
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came to pass a lot of people now in
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filing complaints are arguing that the
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CSRA is unfair it's being interpreted
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incorrectly the government is
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interpreting and applying it illegally
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Etc uh we'll find out from the court
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cases eventually if they're right or
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what's right the way it's being applied
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may be unfair I'm not going to argue
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that one way or the other it's a value
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judgment I can't explain how and why the
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courts that have issued decisions so far
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have cited in favor of the government
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the civil service reform act as I said
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became a law in
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1978 and part of it was designed to make
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it easier to Fire Federal Employees
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Jimmy Carter went around the country
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arguing in favor of the CSRA with him in
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a lot of the performances was the
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president of the American Federation of
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government employees at the time that
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was a man by the name of Ken Block I've
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met Ken Block uh not as a friend I
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certainly didn't know him well but
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enough to form an impression of him Ken
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was a plumber working for the Air Force
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in South Alabama and became the
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president of afge and I don't mean that
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as an insult to him or his background or
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to Plumbers U you don't become president
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of a national Union without having a lot
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going for you and a lot of what he had
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had nothing to do with having or not
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having a college degree the man had a
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lot of raw intelligence strong
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personality analytical ability and when
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I suspect the president of the United
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States asked him to go around the
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country being on national TV and support
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his efforts to reorganize reform
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restructure government under President
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Carter it was probably a temptation that
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was hard to resist and he didn't resist
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it and afg's National president was part
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of the reason the Cs was passed so I'm
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guessing afge had some influence in How
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It Was Written and what it did their
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goal at the time to put it in
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perspective was the federal labor
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relations program was run under an
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executive order issued first by
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President canedy Modified by by
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President Nixon but it was still an
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executive order
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and as most of the viewers know an
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executive order can be changed by
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whoever the next president is they
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really wanted Labor Relations to become
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law and it did that wasn't necessarily
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good for Mr blalock's career he had some
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problems dealing with a lot of Union
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people who didn't like the Cs and in
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part you may be seeing now why some of
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them thought it was a mistake the CSR
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was designed to make it easier to fire
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federal
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employees that based on performance
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largely several authors who are more
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knowledgeable more experienced than I am
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involved with performance appraisal have
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said with good justification the law
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failed in that respect it didn't make it
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easier ultimately it became probably
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more difficult performance appraisal
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plans critical elements of a performance
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plan appeal rights in firing a career
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employee all became very lengthy timec
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consuming hard to do most federal
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supervisors once they had some knowledge
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of how the system worked would rather
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many cases leave a person sitting in an
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office reading a newspaper all day even
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not doing anything related to his
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federal job because it was quicker it
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was easier it was less stressful he
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slept better at night not having to deal
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with the person so a lot of times it was
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just ignored it didn't work but part of
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what the CSRA did also was it created a
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couple of new agencies I mentioned the
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office of personnel management which was
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the Civil Service Commission but two new
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agencies were created the flra federal
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labor relations Authority and the Merit
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systems protection board and that's
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important because of what's Happening
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Now with some of the cases going to
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court two cases in the last few days
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have not gone in favor of the people who
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were suing the government largely a
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Consortium of unions and the reason is
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because the Cs created a path for
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resolving complaints a union that has a
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complaint about how the Labor Relations
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statute or a labor relations issue goes
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to the federal labor relations Authority
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not directly into federal court both
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decisions that have come out the judge
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has specifically
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cited cited the CSRA as why one of the
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reasons why he was not ruling in favor
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of the positions that the unions or the
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plantiffs were
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articulating they have to go to the
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federal labor relations Authority now
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probationary employee doesn't have the
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same appeal rights as a career employee
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they are much more limited specifically
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they can only appeal certain things if
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you're terminated as a probationary
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employee you can only appeal based on
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things such as I was fired because
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because of my political affiliation or
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my political views I was fired because
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of my marital status I was fired for
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discriminatory reasons my race my color
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My Religion those types of things that
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is how you get a case before the mspb
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possibly before the office of special
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counsel if you're a probationary
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employee who's been fired now what's
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happening according to various reports
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that have come out is people are being
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fired because of poor performance
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as a probationary employee and their
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citing I have gotten good performance
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reviews good comments from my supervisor
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or supervisors based on my performance
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during the time I've been with this
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Federal agency but yet I've been fired
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because of poor performance so they're
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lying that's not the
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reason well we'll see how that works out
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going directly into federal court is
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going to be tough because the CSRA says
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the way you file a case case if you're a
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probationary employee or a career
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employee is typically you go to the
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mspb it can go to the office of special
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counil for occasionally for some reasons
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that don't appear to be applicable here
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but possibly they are we'll see what
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happens what's coming out in the
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allegations that people are making and
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supposedly tens of thousands of people
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have been fired uh or in the process of
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being fired many of those are
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probationary
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employees so the people the lawyers
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making the decision where do we go to
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file this appeal have to decide where do
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they go and so far they've gone to
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Federal Court makes sense some class
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actions are being filed a class action
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that is filed usually it goes into
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federal court and that appears to be
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what the attorneys that are filing these
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cases are going to be doing that remains
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to be seen if they continue to go there
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it remains to be seen how their cases
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come out one of the arguments being made
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is that the way the government has
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handled it is unfair that it wasn't
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based on performance it was based on
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some other reason that's the kind of
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argument that might be made for a career
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employee going to the
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mspb
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unfairness probably doesn't have a lot
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to do with it it could be unfair that
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you're fired it probably is unfair that
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you were fired especially if you're
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doing a good job but because the limited
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appeal rights exist espe especially for
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probationary employees a court is likely
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to say you only have limited appeal
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rights based on these topics some
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arguments being made are that in effect
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the government was trying to avoid a
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riff reduction in force and perhaps
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that's true in our earlier video we said
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it's quicker it's easier to fire a
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probationary employee and it's likely
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that's why mspb was asking federal
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agencies how many probationary employees
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do you have on board so in effect if
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they could fire 100 or 200,000 people as
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a probationary employee instead of going
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through the rift procedures it would be
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a lot quicker and easier in the comments
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some people have asked are you working
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were you working with the op office of
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person personnel management OPM or with
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the administration in some way when you
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did your first video because you
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predicted this would come no we weren't
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working with anybody on it
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I've got a lot of experience in working
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with the civil service reform act so we
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know what it says we know how how it
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applies we know the Supreme Court has in
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the past
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upheld the CSRA by limiting the appeal
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rights in order to make it more
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efficient based on the specific areas
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that the mspb or the flr will
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cover so there's no political agenda
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it's just a person who knows knows the
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system could look at it and see and the
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people at OPM or elsewhere who were
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looking at the system obviously know how
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it works so they're probably using the
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probationary system as a way to downsize
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restructure optimize the government
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that's how it can work that may not be
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how it was designed to work maybe the
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people who passed it didn't even think
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of that happening but that happens with
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a law p that passes but the judges so
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far are saying I have to interpret and
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apply the law that exists not as
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somebody else thinks it should have been
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written so there we are that's where we
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stand we've heard from a lot of
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probationary employees who are really
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hurt uh financially emotionally by
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what's happened the federal government
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has been thought of as a career type
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position once you get into working for
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the federal government a lot of people
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stay 30 or 40 even 45 years but that's
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not happening right now it's becoming a
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Less Pleasant place to work that appears
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to be part of what the administration
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wants to do to reduce the size of
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government so that's what you're dealing
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with we hope you find this video to be
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useful instructive educational and we
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wish you the best of luck thank you for
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watching
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