Opinion ID: 695086
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the thirty-day suspension

Text: 3 Larry J. Jackson (Jackson), Chief, Reliability and Maintainability Branch, issued to Cooper a Notice of Proposed Removal dated 19 August 1992. The 19 August Notice contained the following charges: 4 (1) disobeying orders; 5 (2) absence without leave (AWOL); and 6 (3) sleeping on duty.
7 Jackson charged Cooper with failure to obey orders concerning required deadlines of assigned projects. In particular, Cooper failed to meet deadlines for a memorandum on Test Analyze and Fix (TAAF) testing. A draft of the memorandum was due 12 June 1992, and a final version was due 19 June 1992. As of 20 July 1992, Cooper had not submitted even the draft memorandum. 8 Cooper was also charged with failure to obey orders concerning working on grievances during official duty time. On 18 May 1992, Cooper returned to work after a suspension. During June and July of 1992, Cooper worked on a grievance related to his prior suspension rather than working on the TAAF project. He did this despite receiving a direct order not to work on the grievances during official duty time. Grievance-related material found in Cooper's computer directory suggested that the material had been written during working hours.
9 As of 24 April 1992, Cooper had been on leave restriction because of his excessive use of sick leave and his frequent absences from work. Nevertheless, Cooper was absent without leave for two hours on 9 July 1992.
10 The record contains uncontroverted testimony that co-workers observed Cooper sleeping on at least three occasions while on duty. Besty Holbert, a fellow employee, and Jackson observed Cooper sleeping on 15 July 1992; Jackson observed Cooper sleeping on 27 July 1992; and Clarence Meese, the division chief, and Jackson observed Cooper sleeping on 4 August 1992.
11 Cooper was not actually removed from federal service pursuant to the 19 August 1992 Notice. Martin E. Falk (Falk), Deputy for Center Operations, decided that a thirty-day suspension was appropriate. He reached this decision after considering the oral and written replies made by Cooper and his attorney, Jerry Goldstein, on 10 September 1992 and 30 September 1992. Falk informed Cooper of his decision in a Notice of Decision dated 22 October 1992. Cooper's 30-day suspension from 25 October to 23 November 1992 followed.