Schedule F a Danger to America's Civil Service
- Details
- 16 Sep
On the eve of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on the federal workforce, the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), AFL-CIO, joined the Federal Workers Alliance in raising concerns about the return of Schedule F. The hearing, titled “Ensuring a Trustworthy Government: Examining the National Security Risks of Replacing Nonpartisan Civil Servants with Political Appointees,” is on September 17.
Schedule F stems from a presidential executive order (no longer in effect) in which tens of thousands of federal employees who serve in roles believed to have some authority over policy would be reassigned as Schedule F employees. These employees would lose their workplace and union protections upon reassignment, making them functionally at-will employees and therefore far easier to fire. Further, Schedule F defies merit principles and instead would require political loyalty to a president.
The Federal Workers Alliance is a coalition of labor unions representing over 550,000 federal and postal employees. PASS represents 11,000 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense.
“To be clear,” the unions wrote, “Schedule F—or any similar authority that replicates its elements—serves only to undermine and corrupt the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government and must be legally prohibited from ever being implemented.”