Report finds veterans are treated fairly in federal hiring

Federal agencies are properly implementing veterans' preference in their hiring decisions, according to a new study from the Office of Personnel Management. OPM looked at the fiscal 1999 hiring practices of selected parts of nine departments and five agencies, including the departments of Interior and Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure they did not discriminate against veterans when hiring. "Federal agencies are fully and fairly considering veterans' preference eligibles in their hiring decisions and are not misusing staffing flexibilities to intentionally avoid hiring veterans," said the report, Veterans: Getting Their Preference? Overall, "no substantive changes" need to be made to agencies' hiring processes to ensure that veterans are treated fairly, the report said. The Veterans' Preference Act of 1944 allows veterans to receive preference over other candidates in the government's competitive hiring process. Under the act, veterans also receive retention preference during reductions in force. The Veteran's Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 made violating veterans' preference rules a prohibited personnel practice. Managers can be fined, suspended, reduced in grade or terminated for such practices. When agencies seek to fill a position, human resources departments compile a list of the most highly qualified candidates. Qualified veterans are given extra points in the hiring process, meaning they can rank higher on a candidate list than an equally qualified nonveteran. Hiring managers choose a candidate from the list-unless they are dissatisfied with the list, in which case they can request a revised list from the personnel department. Supervisors who want to avoid hiring veterans might advertise a position at several grade levels so they can choose a candidate from one list while failing to consider a veteran who appears on another list, said OPM. No agencies included in the study misused staffing flexibilities to deliberately avoid hiring veterans, according to OPM, but some agencies failed to follow OPM guidance on issuing separate lists for the same position. In cases where this practice occurred, however, veterans were not improperly passed over in the hiring process, said the report. The agencies agreed to stop using multiple lists for individual positions and pledged to follow OPM guidance. Human resources officials generally understood their responsibility to ensure veterans are treated fairly in the hiring process, and agencies provided HR specialists with training in the area of veterans' preference, the report said. According to OPM, the percentage of veterans hired by the federal government through the competitive hiring process has grown steadily since fiscal 1995. The percentage of veterans in the federal workforce is twice that of the private sector.