The short answer – no; the MSPB does not have jurisdiction over appeals of position classifications. However, you can file a Position Classification Appeal with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Here are some aspects of your position classification you can challenge: the grade, occupational series, and sometimes, the title of your position. You may also seek to have your general schedule (GS) position converted to the wage system, or vice versa.

Here are some things you may not [...]

This story about OSC Chief, Scott Bloch, is not nearly as funny as it is sad.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is charged with, among other things, protecting Federal employees from retaliation for whistleblowing and from other “prohibited personnel practices”. The OSC is tasked with investigating allegations of this sort and, in some situations, bringing an action against the offending supervisor/Agency before the MSPB.

Anyone who has experience with the OSC in this capacity might agree that the Office [...]

Generally, the answer to the above question is yes. However, the MSPB has laid out a test which will control whether or not a medical condition or illness can justify an untimely filed appeal.

The test is laid out in Lacy v. Dept. of Navy, 73 MSPR 434 (1998), and requires that an employee show three things:

(1) Identify the time period during which he suffered from the illness;

(2) submit medical evidence showing that he suffered from the [...]

The short answer to that question is “generally, yes”.

Disability retirement is available to Federal Employees who become disabled in the course of their employment. The disability need not have occurred while at work.  Whether or not an employee is eligible for  disability retirement depends on which Retirement System the employee works under.

CSRS employees must be employed for a minimum of 5 years and be no longer able to effetcively perform at their current grade or pay level due to a [...]

Many federal employees find it necessary to enter a period of leave without pay (LWOP) and/or accept Workers’ Compensation benefits from OWCP to recover from a partial or total temporary disability that resulted from an on the job injury. But what happens after the employee has fully recovered from that temporary disability?

Employees who have fully recovered from disability and can perform the duties of their prior position may have what are called “restoration rights”. That is, a [...]

One very serious situation for Federal employees are allegations that the employee misused a government credit card.

The scenario that commonly arises usually involve a government credit card or travel card holder who makes a purchase which is not authorized. Most commonly, this type of discipline involves employees who allegedly purchase a personal item using their government credit card. Other times, it involves charges on a card or cash advances that exceed the pre-travel estimation.

In any of [...]

If an Agency places an employee on indefinite enforced leave, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) may have jurisdiction to review this action.

Typically, an Agency will place an employee on enforced leave, pending the results of a voluntary or involuntary application for medical/disability retirement, or in other scenarios where the Agency has questions (legitimate or not) about an employee’s medical inability to perform the essential functions of the job.

An Agency may place an employee on enforced leave pending inquiry to [...]

The MSPB hears claims involving improper calculations of a federal employee’s military leave. Each year, federal employees who serve in the National Guard or reserves are required to participate in annual training. By Federal statute, those employees are to be given up to 15 days of paid leave each year to attend that training.

Until around 2000, the Office of Personnel Management interpreted that rule in such a way that they offered only 15 calendar days of leave [...]

When an Agency charges an employee with failure to follow instructions, they are required to prove certain facts:

An instruction or order was issued;
The Agency was entitled to have the instruction followed; and,
The employee did not follow the instruction.

It is important that the instruction to the employee be clear – enough to put the employee on notice that some action or inaction is required of them. For this reason, when the instruction is issued in writing (memo, letter, e-mail, [...]

Not every employee can appeal an adverse action to the MSPB. Here is a brief list of who can make an appeal to the MSPB:

Competitive Service employees who have completed a 1-year probationary or trial period;
Veterans preference-eligible employees with at least one year of continuous employment in the same or similar positions outside the competitive service;
Postal Service supervisors, and some employees engaged in personnel work, who have completed one year of current continuous service in the same or similar [...]