It is the rare employee who at some point in his or her career is not accused of some wrongdoing. It may be a subordinate employee who becomes disgruntled with a manager and decides to pick up the phone and make an anonymous allegation to an IG hotline or file an OSC whistleblower complaint. Or it could be an employee who didn’t get a promotion, or got a fully successful rather than a highly successful, or didn’t get a detail or job assignment that they wanted, or did get one that they didn’t want. In each instance the manager could be (and sometimes is) accused of discrimination, retaliation or creating a hostile work environment and is forced to defend his/her actions. FEDS provides you with quality legal counsel to defend employees accused of discrimination, retaliation, or sexual harassment by subordinate employees, under a federal EEO system that allows employees to accuse managers and other employees of discrimination with impunity and without any real proof or justification of wrongdoing.
Why do I need liability protection for EEO complaints filed against me as the Responsible Management Official? I thought my agency’s attorneys defend the EEO complaint and me
While it is true that the agency’s attorneys are responsible for defending the EEO complaint and working with you to further the agency’s defense of the EEO complaint, the agency’s attorney represent the agency’s interests—not yours. This means that the agency is the client and the attorney’s duty of loyalty is to the agency only. This could lead to a situation where the agency attorney is advancing an interest that is adverse to you. You need someone looking out for your interests. This is where membership in FEDS comes in—it provides you an attorney to defend you during the EEO investigation, and in the unfortunate event that there is a disciplinary action against you as a result of the EEO matter.