Sophia Serrao
Fri, 10/13/2023
October 13 marks the anniversary of the enactment of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (“CSRA”), a federal personnel law designed to protect federal employees from unfair or unwarranted employment practices and to create a fair workplace for them. The CSRA also established various vital systems to ensure and enforce workers’ rights, while allowing federal managers flexibility to improve operations.
The CSRA significantly changed how the federal government manages its workforce. It replaced the U.S. Civil Service Commission, tasked with overseeing the merit-based selection process for federal civil service employees, and distributed its functions across new agencies. The CSRA established three new independent agencies: the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”), Merit System Protection Board (“MSPB”), and Federal Labor Relations Authority (“FLRA”).
OPM now serves as the human resources agency and personnel policy manager for federal agencies. OPM provides management guidance to executive branch agencies and issues its own regulations on human resource functions in the federal sector.
MSPB protects merit system principles and promotes a workplace free of prohibited personnel practices. The Board hears appeals from federal employees who have been disciplined, or otherwise separated from their positions, to ensure that the law’s merit-based system has been followed. It also conducts studies of the federal civil service to ensure compliance with the CSRA.
The FLRA oversees the rights of federal employees to form, join, and assist unions (including enforcing the standards imposed on union officers by the CSRA) and to bargain with their federal agency employers. The FLRA also ensures that the labor management process between the government and its employees complies with the law, by processing unfair labor practices and reviewing arbitrator decisions.
The CSRA was the largest reform in Federal personnel regulations of its time and now provides the framework for federal employees to ensure they are protected from prohibited practices. MSE represents federal labor unions, and their members, in all aspects of the labor-management relationship. For more information, visit https://www.mselaborlaw.com/resources/federal-employees, or contact us at info@mselaborlaw.com.
