MSPB Denies Petitions for Review of Terminated ex-FCC Attorney
The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) denied the petitions for review of its initial decisions dismissing the appeal of Stanley Scheiner’s termination from the FCC and for his individual right of action (IRA) appeal, affirming those decisions as final,…
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said its order Thursday (dockets DC-0752-14-0744-I-3 and DC-1221-17-0037-W-1). The board concluded Scheiner didn’t establish any basis under Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations (Section 1201.115) for granting his petitions for review, it said. Scheiner, a former FCC attorney adviser, alleges the charges were unsubstantiated when he was fired in March 2014 for excessive absences or failure to properly request leave. He also alleges the FCC acted in retaliation for his equal employment opportunity activity, and that the termination violated his rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act. When Scheiner ultimately reached a settlement with the FCC resolving both his termination and IRA appeals, an MSPB administrative judge dismissed those appeals as settled, said the order. In his petitions for review, Scheiner doesn’t allege, “nor do we discern any basis upon which to find,” the settlement agreement he reached with the FCC was unlawful, it said. “Neither does the appellant suggest, nor the record show, that he entered into the agreement involuntarily,” it said. Scheiner hasn’t shown the FCC acted fraudulently on the settlement agreement, nor has he shown the parties “operated under mutual mistake sufficient to justify striking the agreement as invalid,” it said.