Court Opinion

ID: 9495760
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:09:44.585338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:10.955617
License: Public Domain

Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge PROST. Dissenting opinion filed by Circuit Judge PAULINE NEWMAN.
PROST, Circuit Judge.
Michael J. Wolf, M.D., petitions for review of the final decision of the Merit Systems Protections Board (“Board”), Docket No. SF0351990647-I-1, 87 M.S.P.R. 33, dismissing his appeal from a reduction in force (“RIF”) action by the Department of Veterans Affairs (“the agency”) for lack of jurisdiction. Because Dr. Wolf does not satisfy the conditions of 5 C.F.R. § 351.901, which limits RIF appeals to employees who are furloughed for more than thirty days, separated, or demoted by the RIF action, we affirm.
BACKGROUND
Dr. Wolf is a staff psychiatrist holding a part-time position at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Long Beach, California. He originally held a part-time sixty hours per pay period position at a *1396stated hourly rate of pay. By letter dated June 10, 1997, entitled “Separation Notice,” hand delivered on June 12, 1997, the agency notified Dr. Wolf that he would be separated as of July 13, 1997, due to a realignment of resources. The notice added, however, “[t]his separation may be canceled if an assignment becomes available prior to the effective date.”1 Indeed, another assignment did become available. Later in the day of June 12,1997, Dr. Wolf was handed a letter dated June 11, 1997, whereby he was offered a part-time staff physician position for fifty hours per pay period at the same hourly rate of pay as his original position, effective July 14, 1997. On June 24,1997, Dr. Wolf accepted the position and continued to work without interruption. He also 'filed a formal grievance alleging breach of contract.
At a hearing on the grievance on July 29, 1997, the grievance examiner found that Dr. Wolfs employment contract had been breached and recommended reinstatement to the sixty-hour work schedule. The agency refused to comply. Dr. Wolf appealed to the Board arguing that the agency action constituted a RIF and was taken without the procedural safeguards required for such actions. The Board’s Administrative Judge agreed with Dr. Wolf and found that the agency had conducted a RIF, that the agency had a valid reason for conducting the RIF, but that the agency did not follow the requisite RIF procedures when it reduced Dr. Wolfs hours of employment. See 5 U.S.C. §§ 3501-3504 (2000); 5 C.F.R. pt. 351 (2002). The Administrative Judge further ordered the agency to reinstate Dr. Wolf to his former sixty hours per pay period position.
On the agency’s petition for review to the full Board, the Board confirmed that the RIF regulations apply to Veterans Health Administrative health care professionals who are appointed under Title 38 and who are separated by a staff adjustment. See James v. Von Zemenszky, 284 F.3d 1310, 1314-15 (Fed.Cir.2002). The Board further found that the agency’s resource realignment was a staff adjustment. However, the Board held that Dr. Wolfs reduction in hours did not meet the conditions of 5 C.F.R. § 351.901, which limits RIF appeals to employees who are “furloughed for more than 30 days, separated, or demoted by the reduction in force action.” The Board therefore vacated the Administrative Judge’s initial decision and dismissed the, appeal for lack of jurisdiction.2 Dr. Wolf petitioned this court for review. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(9).
DISCUSSION
Whether the Board has jurisdiction to adjudicate a case is a question of law, which we review without deference. Monasteri v. Merit Sys. Prot. Bd., 232 F.3d 1376, 1378 (Fed.Cir.2000).
An agency is required to use RIF procedures when it releases a competing employee from his or her competitive level by either furlough of more than thirty days, separation, demotion, or reassignment requiring displacement when the release is required due to reorganization. Dixon v. United States Postal Serv., 64 M.S.P.R. 445, 450 (1994); 5 C.F.R. § 351.201(a)(2) (2002). Furthermore, under the RIF regulations, an employee may appeal to the *1397Board only if he has been furloughed for more than thirty days, separated, or demoted by a RIF action. Carita v. United States Postal Serv., 67 M.S.P.R. 277, 279 (1995) (stating that an employee reassigned during a RIF can only appeal to the Board if the reassignment was a RIF demotion); Aliota v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, 60 M.S.P.R. 491, 495 (1994) (“As a general rule, the Board does not have appellate jurisdiction over reassignments that do not constitute a reduction in grade or pay, even though the reassignment reduces the employee’s status, duties, or responsibilities.”); 5 C.F.R. § 351.901.
Dr. Wolf maintains that the agency separated him from his original sixty hours per pay period position effective July 13, 1997, and that the separation was never cancelled or rescinded. He asserts that he subsequently accepted a new offer of employment for a part-time position of no more than fifty hours per pay period. Therefore, on appeal, he argues that he was in fact separated notwithstanding his retention in a fifty hours per pay period position, RIF procedures should have been followed, and the Board therefore had jurisdiction over his appeal.3 The government counters that the Board’s dismissal for lack of jurisdiction was proper because a reduction in part-time hours is not an appealable RIF action.
We agree with the Board that it lacked jurisdiction over Dr. Wolfs appeal because his reduction in work hours does not constitute a furlough of more than thirty days, a separation, or a demotion under 5 C.F.R. § 351.901. It is undisputed that the agency did not furlough Dr. Wolf. In support of his allegation that the agency separated him from his original position, Dr. Wolf relies solely upon the June 10 Separation Notice. However, while the notice advised him that he would be separated from his position effective July 13, 1997, the notice also informed him that the separation might be cancelled if another position became available prior to the effective date. That is exactly what happened almost immediately in this case. As the Board found, subsequent to the Separation Notice the agency offered and Dr. Wolf accepted the same part-time staff physician position as his original position with a reduced number of work hours per pay period. Hence, without a break in service, the agency effected his reduction in hours on July 14, 1997. The record confirms that the only SF 50 Notification of Personnel Action taken was a reduction in hours of Dr. Wolfs position. Thus, it is quite clear that the separation proposed in the Separation Notice was not effectuated.
Dr. Wolf also was not demoted under the RIF regulations. He argues that his new position is not the “same” as his previous position because it consists of fewer hours per pay period, includes lower total pay per period, and was not set forth in a written contract or promise. However, a RIF demotion does not occur unless, among other things, the employee is reassigned to a position carrying a lower grade or rate of pay. Brown v. United States Postal Serv., 58 M.S.P.R. 345, 349-51 (1993) (holding that the rate of pay of the position to which the employee was assigned, rather than any retained grade or pay the agency has provided him, determines whether the employee has been demoted); 5 C.F.R. § 210.102(b)(4) (2002). Although Dr. Wolfs hours were reduced, a reduction in hours is not a demotion under the RIF regulations because the position to which Dr. Wolf was assigned on July 14, 1997, has the same grade and rate of pay as his original position. Id. Therefore, even assuming the agency released Dr. *1398Wolf from his competitive level, the Board did not have jurisdiction over Dr. Wolfs appeal because the agency action of reducing his hours did not constitute a furlough of more than thirty days, a separation, or a demotion. 5 C.F.R. § 351.901 (2002).
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the Board’s decision vacating the Administrative Judge’s initial decision and dismissing the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Because we affirm the Board’s decision, we decline to address the government’s alternative argument, raised on appeal as a new issue, that the Board lacked jurisdiction over Dr. Wolfs appeal because Dr. Wolf was a part-time employee appointed pursuant to 38 U.S.C. § 7405.

AFFIRMED.

. Veterans Health Administration procedures on assignments reassignments, staff adjustments, and furloughs for employees appointed under Title 38 require such notice.

. The Board initially denied the agency’s petition for review, which challenged the Board’s jurisdiction oh other grounds, but the Board reopened the appeal on its own motion to address its jurisdiction under 5 C.F.R. § 351.901.

. The majority of Dr. Wolfs informal and reply briefs are devoted to his allegation that the agency breached the contract upon which his original position was based.