Issues with DoL.

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Loredrin

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I'm seeking legal help/advice with an employment situation.The agency in question has lied to the Department of Labor, during their investigation, to cover up a hiring violation. The Deptartment of Labor is refusing to do anything about it. Even after I've shown them documents that clearly show they were lied to during their investigation. DoL won't even respond to requests from Senator Bayh's office on the matter.

My main question is. If they won't even respond to a US Senator. Do I even have any hope at all getting them to respond in a court of law?
 
I have a few documents that show the CO of this agency lied to the DOL-VETs investigator. In order to cover up this violation. I've shown these same documents to Senator Bayh. Which prompted him to send a letter to DOL-VETs asking them about the investigation. It's been over 3 months since that initial letter. And they have sent in 2 more letters asking why they haven't gotten a response (one a month). But as of yesterday they have yet to receive a reply.

Here is the letter that the CO wrote to the DOL-VETs investigator.


*It appears I cannot post URL links yet. I've PMed you (vistor message) with links to the .pdf documents CBG.


Please note that he says no one with my same score or lower was hired. Yet the hiring list shows differently. You should also note at the end of the letter. He says that he cannot send the DOL investigator a hiring list since it is still active. The CO wrote this letter on January 24th, 2008 (see date on letter). However I'd been told, when I called after seeing the 2nd announcement posted, that the list was exhausted at the end of November 2007. So he was being less than truthful there.


And here is the relevant part of the hiring list from that first announcement. Which was included in the agency response to MSPB. So at the front of the document they say one thing. Then later show the hiring list that shows that to be a lie. (I'm wondering as well why MSPB said nothing about this at that time?)

All 16 of the people you see with the same score as the last person hired are veterans. Instead of continuing down the hiring list (after hiring someone with the same score). They created a new list and over 100 people were hired from it. They actually did this twice more (a total of 4 lists were created for these positions).
 
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You're still not answering my question; at least, not to my satisfaction.

The issue is not, did they lie. I'm perfectly willing to accept your statement that they did. The issue is, did they violate any laws. Lying is not automatically a legal violation.

So, let's cut to the chase here. WHAT DID THEY LIE ABOUT?
 
Received your PM.

I do not want to go to links that will show your letter to the DOL.

I want you to tell me, right here, WHAT DID YOUR EMPLOYER LIE ABOUT.

If you can't answer a simple question, then I'm afraid I can't spare the time to give you free information.
 
The letter is not mine. It is from the agency CO to the DOL-VETs investigator. In response to the investigator's inquiry during his investigation.

In it he says "No one with my same score or lower was hired." However the hiring list I also sent shows differently. Also he tells the investigator that the hiring list is still active so he cannot send him a copy of it. However he wrote this letter on Jan 24th, 2008 when the list had been exhausted (as they say) at the end of November, 2007. So the investigator never actually got to see the hiring list at the time of his investigation.

I've been told by a long time employee there, that this federal agency has had issues in the past when it came to hiring veterans. She had thought that it had gotten better over the past few years. However when I showed her the information I sent you. She said "Guess it hasn't gotten any better."

The laws violated can be found at the OPM website. They concern the hiring of veterans for federal employment. Again I cannot post URLs. So if your interested in learning about veteran preference in federal hiring you'll have to go to the OPM website.
 
Okay, since you're determined to dance around the question instead of answering it, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for someone else to come by and answer it. You have still not explained what happened.
 
The agency violated the rules for veterans preference in federal hiring. Then lied to the DOL-VETs investigator to cover that violation up.

I'm not sure what your asking I guess. Are you asking what specific rule was violated?


5 U.S.C. 3309, 3313 and 5 CFR 332.401 and 337.101

Selection must be made from the highest three eligibles on the certificate who are available for the job--the "rule of three." However, an agency may not pass over a preference eligible to select a lower ranking nonpreference eligible or nonpreference eligible with the same or lower score.
 
No. I am asking you to give me a description of the circumstances. I DON'T want to hear, this is the law that was violated. I don't want to hear, this is how I can prove the employer lied about it. I want you to tell me a story. This is what was happening. This is what I did. This is what the employer did. This is how the DOL got involved.

Example of what I am looking for:

I was applying for a promotion. I thought I was qualified because of X. I took a test and failed it. I should not have failed it because of x requirement. I contacted the appropriate regulatory agency. This is what they did. This is what conclusion they came to. This is what action I believe should have taken place.
 
Loredin - cbg is right. Give us the story and not the after-effects. Avoiding being specific does not give us the information we need to determine if a law was violated and what you can do. If you feel that your information will be compromised by revealing more than you want to, then, I suggest that you go talk to an employment attorney so you can see what your options are. Hope this helps!
 
Ah! Ok here goes.

Far warning though - you asked for this much information. :)


I'll break this down into a time format. Might be more digestable that way.


July 16th, 2007 - Job was posted in the local classified ads. Directed you to go to a website and apply if you were interested. I applied on said website at that time.

July 24th, 2007 - Status on website was updated. Said I have been qualified and referred to the hiring list for the positions.

November 2007 - Saw positions posted again in the local newspaper. Called number given. Was told the last list had been "exhausted". Thought that was strange since I was still on it, but hadn't heard anything.

December 2007 - Filed a complaint with DOL-VETs.

January 2008 - Received report of investigation by DOL-VETs that said "Everything seemed to be done correctly". But was told I could appeal to the MSPB if I wished to. So I filed an appeal with MSPB.

March 2008 - MSPB case was dismissed. Because I could not prove MSPB had jurisdiction over the matter. However in the agency reply to MSPB (I got a copy of it, as required). Several documents were included.

- The letter that the CO sent to the DOL-VETs investigator.
- The hiring list for these positons.

Both of these documents clearly show a violation occured. And that the CO lied to the investigator to cover those up.

March 2008 - Filed an FOIA request for a copy of the hiring list from the agency. (Did this so I would have a 2nd copy, that I could verify the information on the one sent to MSPB.)

July 2008 - Finally received my FOIA requested hiring list. It confirmed what was on the first one I'd received.

July 2008 - Began trying to contact DOL-VETs investigator. He would not return my emails, or voicemail messages. I also contacted DOL-IG and the DOL Compliance office. They also would not get back with me.

July 2008 - Contacted my Senator to see if he could get DOL-VETs to respond to him on the matter.

August 8th, 2008 - Submitted my information to DoD-IG. They have not replied as of yet.

August 18th, 2008 - Received an email from an employee at MSPB. Stating I should contact the local US Attorney on a violation of 18 USC 1001. Contacted him, was told his office would have no interest in pursuing the matter.

October 6th, 2008 - Contacted my Senator's office. Said they had just sent out their 3rd letter asking for a reply from DOL-VETs. But that they haven't received anything yet.

That's where I stand now. If you have any other questions please let me know.
 
Did my above post not contain enough information? If there is anything else I can provide please let me know.
 
Any advice?

Do I have any other options besides going to a lawsuit?

Is there any way I can get the contact information for the other veterans who were also screwed over on the hiring list? To see if we would want to do a class action suit? Would that even be best? Or seperate suits by all involved?

Still puzzled by the fact that DOL doesn't seem to care that a violation occured. And even more so that they don't care they were lied to during their investigation.
 
You can't force the DOL to take action. If they're not interested, they're not interested.
 
Posting for those others who may have a problem with federal agencies.

You CAN sue the government for failure to follow their own rules and regulations. Just because someone doesn't want to do something doesn't mean there is nothing that can be done.

Consider the following legal decisions (and these are only a few).

Federal employees may become personally liable for constitutional deprivation by direct participation, failure to remedy wrongs after learning about it, creation of a policy or custom under which constitutional practices occur or gross negligence in managing subordinates who cause violations.

See:
Gallegos v. Haggerty, Northern District of New York, 689 F.Supp. 93

Williamson v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, 815 F.2d. 369

ACLU Foundation v. Barr, 952 F.2d. 457, 293 U.S. App. DC 101, (CA DC 1991).


Please keep in mind that this is a FREE advice site. And more often than not what you are given is a poster's OPINION on a matter. Which may, or may not, be ground in fact or law.

There IS information out there that will help you. You just have to dig for it.
 
Loredrin contact an attorney most dol investigations whether the dol finds cause or not give rise to review by an administrative law judge, if you desire a hearing.
 
Green Hornet said:
Loredrin contact an attorney most dol investigations whether the dol finds cause or not give rise to review by an administrative law judge, if you desire a hearing.
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This goes beyond the initial hiring violation by a federal agency. There is a systemic problem with DOL-VETS. And even worse DOL-OIG (who is suppose to be "policing" the other DOL departments).

I've been in contact with other veterans (outside of my case) who have also reported that their investigations were mishandled. I've sent a letter to the new Sec. of Labor. Hoping that she will correct the problems in her agency.

However if she doesn't respond within the next 2 weeks (that will be 4 weeks since I mailed the letter). I will be sending her another one. This one a "Notice of Intent to Sue".
 
Well we got a new secretary thats heads and shoulders above the last one. I'm curious of how the letter will be received you sent. The DOL has been receiving a bad report card lately so who knows.
 
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