Mouton Miller, a federal employee, was promoted from an expected-service supervisory position at the United States Postal Service (USPS) to a competitive-service supervisory position at the United Stated Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Her new position, also supervisory, was subject to a one-year probationary period. During that one-year period, the DHS alleged that Mouton-Miller’s performance was unsatisfactory and informed her that she was being demoted to a non-supervisory role. She appealed the decision as an adverse action to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which dismissed her appeal on jurisdictional grounds. Since Mouton-Miller did not complete the probationary period, the Board was barred by 5 U.S.C. §7512(c) from ruling on her appeal. Mouton-Miller appealed this decision, arguing that that she could combine her time as an expected-service supervisor at the USPS with her time as a competitive-service supervisor at the DHS. and the United States Court of Appeals affirmed the Board’s decision to deny Mouton-Miller’s appeal. The Court determined that 5 U.S.C. §7512(c) did bar the Board from adjudicating her appeal, because even though Mouton-Miller had been a federal employee for a number of years, she could not combine her years of service as an expected-service supervisor at the USPS with her time as a competitive-service supervisor at the DHS to make up for not completing the probationary period at the DHS.
Read the entire decision here.
Attorney Angel did not represent this federal employee, but he does represent USPS employees and DHS employees in matters before the MSPB, EEOC and the federal courts.