News Briefs

THE DAILY FED

News Briefs

The following news summaries are from OPM AM, the daily newsletter of the Office of Personnel Management. OPM AM is available on OPM Mainstreet, the agency's electronic bulletin board, at 202-606-4800.

DECISION OVERTURNED--"Characterizing a decision of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board in a sexual harassment case as 'outrageous,' the OPM has appealed the Board's action to overturn a federal department's removal of a high-ranking senior executive. In its place, the Board has substituted a 90-day suspension. This latest decision of the Board comes four years after it initially decided that no sexual harassment existed in this case (Office of Communications News Release, January 13).

THE FEDERAL DIARY--"Legislation that would make it more difficult to lay off veterans may be one of the new Congress's first orders of business on the civil service front" (The Washington Post).

HIRING THOSE ON WELFARE--Business leaders and others are encouraged by the President to hire people off welfare. "To set a good example, Chief of Staff Leon Panetta has asked the White House personnel office in investigate whether federal hiring guidelines will allow the White House and federal agencies to employ welfare-dependent mothers" (The Washington Post, Saturday, January 11).

FLOOD RELIEF--"Flood victims in the northwest who serve as civilian federal or postal employees may obtain grants and no-interest loans from the Federal Employee Education and Assistance fund (FEEA), a relief agency that is also accepting donations to aid federal employees hurt by the floods" (FEEA News Release, January 6).

NO TRIPLE PAY--"The Hotel Association of Washington, D.C., announced yesterday that it will hold firm to a decision not to pay workers extra holiday wages on Inauguration Day, which also falls on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday"(The Washington Times).

OF INTEREST--Storms in five Western states disrupted employment but added work, too (The Wall Street Journal, Work Week)...Two black employees of Morgan Stanley & Co. Have sued the securities firm for alleged racial discrimination over an electronic mailing they said contained racist jokes. Experts said the suit appears to be the first to use e-mail as the basis for a workplace discrimination allegation (The Washington Post)...Whether you love 'em or loathe 'em, teams are all the rage these days, so learn to live with them. Your career may depend on it (The Wall Street, Managing Your Career).

OTHER VIEWS--The National Political Congress of Black Women (NPCBW) has resurrected its successful NPCBW Commission for the Presidential Appointment of African American Women (Washington Afro-American, Washington, D.C., Dec. 14; New York Beacon, Brooklyn, NY, Dec. 19; Arkansas State Press, Little Rock, AR, Dec. 19)...FEHBP makes the grade -- again (Colorado Medicine, Denver, CO, Dec. 1996)...Veterans preference software launched (Stars and Stripes, Washington, DC, Dec. 16; Register Citizen, Torrington, CT, Dec. 22)...FEHBP referenced in an article on reforming Medicare (Retirement Life Magazine, Washington, DC, January 1997).