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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| New OPM Policy concerning hirees from the last 5 years |
| 2009-11-12 |
| I know this is from a blog, but this information is kind of important. It smells like a purge based on politics to me. OPM is now claiming authority to weed out every former political appointee from being considered for ANY federal positions at EVERY level of the GS Pay Scale, for both the competitive AND excepted service – made RETROACTIVE for the past 5 years! (This is a new, extra layer of scrutiny previously reserved for SES hires.) OPM will now check the recommended hires to “ensure they comply with merit system principles and applicable civil service laws.” It is well established anti-discrimination law in the Federal sector – the public (political appointees included) may not be excluded from consideration for federal jobs because of their political affiliation. OPM’s alleged rationale is to keep political appointees from “burrowing in,” but agencies would need to have already considered the applicant the best qualified to even reach this new hurdle. Stated another way, “but for” the applicant having served as a political appointee within the past five years, all agencies would not be required to seek review from OPM for all agency positions. Effectively, the ONLY reason EVERY agency will now be REQUIRED to consult OPM is to “ask permission” to hire a person based on their political affiliation. Why make the policy retroactive for 5 years? I leave you to draw your own conclusions. |
| Posted by:whitecollar redneck |
| #2 Dangerous game, if you lose an election, it becomes payback time. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-11-12 18:22 |
| #1 EVERY level of the GS Pay Scale, GS's are civil servants and are suppose to be a non-political based employment. SES are another creature. The boys from Chicago are trying to undo a hundred years of reform to end patronage and bring it back. They probably also forgot why the reform was implemented in the first place. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-11-12 14:49 |