Federal government continues to break its own laws

[acroyear]

There is, I'm pretty sure, a law tucked away that says that the federal government MUST give all employees adequate time to vote.

Well, a listener of WTOP wrote an email in to the question of the day, "why didn't you vote?" saying that her division was NOT given any time off or leeway for late arrival / early departure to vote, in violation of that law.

On top of that, the letter asked that the name and address not be read on the air because whistle-blowing is not tolerated in her department and she would likely get fired.

It's not just corruption at the top, here...this is rampant all through the system now...

Comments

[fiona64.livejournal.com]

There is, I'm pretty sure, a law tucked away that says that the federal government MUST give all employees adequate time to vote.

It's one of the civilian personnel regulations.

As you know, I worked for Dept. of Defense for 16 years. We always had the choice to arrive an hour late or leave an hour early for voting, without having to use annual leave. It was *expected* that we would use that time properly for voting, obviously. Those who lived in San Francisco had widely scattered polling places; consider that I lived in Marin County and Berkeley for part of the time I worked for DoD and you'll see why that extra time had value for me; I could make sure I was at the polls before they closed without having to worry about traffic snarls.

On top of that, the letter asked that the name and address not be read on the air because whistle-blowing is not tolerated in her department and she would likely get fired.

Unlike private industry, which can give lip service to whistleblower protections and then just fire the person anyway if it's an at-will state (I have first-hand knowledge on this one), the federal government actually has protections with teeth in them. Admittedly, those protections do not stop a whistleblower being harassed until s/he quits (constructive discharge) ... but the protections at least exist.

[piraterogue.livejournal.com]

As a Federal Goverment employee I am allowed to take up to 2 hours of leave to vote. This does not mean they pay me to vote, I use my annual leave that I earn each payperiod. But they are required to let me take it. The only exemption is people in "Critical" positions, such as military, law emforcement, and firefighters. But they are supposed to be allowed to make prior arrangments in order to do it.

As for the whistle blowers act. There is an 800 number that can be found on OPM's website to make complaints of the type here. She can call the number from anywhere and doesn't even have to give her name, Just the Agency and the office.

[rec4lms.livejournal.com]

First off, how many hours was she working? Was she essential personnel? I have always been able to vote, even when working shift. Polls open at 6am and close at 7pm in Virginia. I've noticed with my co-workers that they just don't care enough to properly budget their time. Second, we are all "essential personnel" and do not fall under the county "one hour off for voting" policy. We suggested to everyone on shift that would be working during elections that they should consider absentee ballots. A handful took the advice. We tried to work with the other portion of employees who failed to vote by absentee ballot. An attempt was made to get everyone who did not vote locally out early, even though it brought staffing down to minimum levels. The next day, we still had employees complaining that they did not get to vote. One especially vociferous person didn't make it even though their polling place was 15 minutes from work.

You can't help those who won't help themselves. But that won't stop them from complaining about it.