A worker advocacy group is seeking outside federal help to force the reinstatement of as many as 168 idled EPA employees to active job duties.
In a complaint filed Friday, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility alleged EPA’s decision to keep those staffers on administrative leave since early February violated several prohibited personnel practices.
The group is asking the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to both investigate and seek an order from the Merit Systems Protection Board “ending their illegal administrative leave and immediately returning them to duty status.”
The special counsel’s office is an independent agency whose main job is enforcing bans on a variety of personnel practices, the best-known being a prohibition of reprisal against whistleblowers. An office spokesperson had no comment on the complaint filed Friday. An EPA representative also declined to comment, citing agency policy on “pending litigation.”
