Rights and Remedies

Rights and Remedies Regarding Discrimination and Other Prohibited Practices

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Federal employees – current and former – and job applicants may file a complaint if they believe that an ABMC personnel action, policy, practice, or decision is based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical or mental disability and/or reprisal for participation in the EEO complaint process, or opposition to unlawful discrimination. A complaint may be processed as an individual complaint, a class complaint, a mixed complaint, a mixed case appeal, or a grievance under administrative grievance procedures, if such procedures are available, depending on the circumstances involved. Each of these procedures is summarized in the ABMC’s discrimination complaint process.

Merit Systems Protection Board

Certain Federal employees – current and former – and job applicants who appeal a personnel action to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) over which the MSPB has jurisdiction may also allege discrimination as part of a “mixed case” appeal. Additionally, employees who file an appeal with the MSPB may raise as an affirmative defense that the personnel action in question resulted from a prohibited personnel practice. General information about Federal employee rights and remedies regarding the MSPB appeal process, including information regarding prohibited personnel practices, may be found on the MSPB Web site at http://www.mspb.gov.

Office of Special Counsel

Current and former federal employees and applicants for federal employment may report suspected prohibited personnel practices, particularly reprisal from whistleblowing charges, to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). The matter may be investigated, and if there is sufficient evidence to prove a violation, the OSC may seek corrective action, disciplinary action, or both against individuals who engage in a prohibited personnel practice. Alternatively, parties in selected cases may agree to mediate their dispute in order to reach a mutually agreeable resolution of the prohibited personnel practice complaint.

See OSC’s guide to federal employee and applicant rights and remedies involving prohibited personnel practices, including the specific protections available for whistleblowers at the OSC Web site. Whistleblowers can file a complaint of retaliation with OSC in writing; by contacting the Disclosure Unit Hotline number (800) 572-2249 or (202) 653-9125; using the OSC Web site at http://www.osc.gov, or by calling OSC at (202) 653-7188.