Opinion ID: 184724
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The FAA Personnel Management System

Text: 4 FAA personnel disciplinary actions were formerly governed by the provisions of Title 5 of the U.S.Code. In 1995, however, Congress directed the FAA to develop and implement a new personnel management system that would supplant the provisions of Title 5. See Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1996, Pub.L. No. 104-50, § 347, 109 Stat. 436, 460 (1995). The FAA responded to this charge by creating the FAA Personnel Management System. Chapter III of the System governs the FAA's disciplinary procedures, which apply to all FAA employees who are not otherwise protected by a collective bargaining agreement. See Joint Appendix (J.A.) A14-A27. 5 Under the System, [s]upervisors are responsible for determining if corrective disciplinary action is warranted. Id. at A16. An employee must be notified at least 15 days in advance of any proposed suspension, and, in particular, must be informed of (i) the specific reason(s) for the proposed action in sufficient detail for the employee to make a reply; (ii) the right to make an oral or written reply within 15 days; (iii) the right to representation during the reply period; and (iv) the right to review all of the material relied upon to support the proposed action and copies unless otherwise prohibited by law. Id. at A17-A18. In presenting a reply, the employee may furnish affidavits and other documentation ... [and] will be given up to 16 hours of excused absence to review the material relied upon and to prepare any reply to a proposed suspension. Id. at A19. After receiving the employee's reply (or, if no reply is made, within twenty-five days of the original notification), the deciding official must issue a final decision. See id. at A18. The final decision must contain, inter alia, a statement of which charge(s) and/or reason(s) were sustained and which were not, as well as notification of the employee's right to appeal any suspension of more than fourteen days. Id. at A19-A20. 6 A suspended employee may then invoke the System's appeals procedure, entitled Guaranteed Fair Treatment, by submitting a written appeal to the next level above the deciding official within ten days of receiving the final decision. Id. at A24. Once an appeal has been filed, the FAA must designate an appellate panel, comprised of a partisan for each side and an arbitrator. See id. The System provides that [t]here will be no discovery for either side but the parties shall exchange documents and witness lists ten days before the hearing. Id. at A25. The parties may be represented at the hearing, and are responsible for securing their own witnesses. See id. 7 The panel must issue a written decision. See id. The panel has the authority to mitigate the penalty in a case involving the employee's conduct, and may award back pay. See id. at A25-A26. Decisions of the panel are issued as final orders of the FAA Administrator, and are reviewable in this court, or in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the circuit in which the employee resides. See id. at A26.