12.0TheLawandPublicEmployees.pptxThe Law and Public Employees
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Just How Many People Work for the Public?
The truth is the actual size of the body of people who deliver public services is unknown.
For one thing , all levels of government rely on large numbers of contractors to carry out many public functions.
The ambiguity is not really an accident.
Governments are special employers which represents all the people within its jurisdiction and therefor
is expected to respond to the needs of it’s citizenry.
Note: They only have those powers granted to them by law, and even those powers are limited by
the rights and liberties of citizens and employees granted by the Constitution and statutes.
Political Corruption
Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain.
An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties, is done under color of law or involves trading in influence.
Forms of corruption vary, but include
bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, and embezzlement.
Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually.
Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, though is not restricted to these activities.
Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is also considered political corruption.
The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance,
some political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another.
In some cases, government officials have broad or ill-defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions.
A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracies, literally meaning "rule by thieves".
Institutional Corruption
Some forms of corruption – now called "institutional corruption" – are distinguished from bribery and other kinds of obvious personal gain.
A similar problem of corruption arises in any institution that depends on financial support from people who have interests that may conflict with the primary purpose of the institution.
Over time, corruption has been defined differently. For example, in a simple context, while performing work for a government or as a representative, it is unethical to accept a gift.
Any free gift could be construed as a scheme to lure the recipient towards some biases.
In most cases, the gift is seen as an intention to seek certain favors such as
work promotion, tipping in order to win a contract, job or exemption from certain tasks in the case of junior employee giving the gift to a senior employee who can be key in winning the favor
A Supervisor’s Nightmare
For supervisors, the real and perceived constraints on their ability to engage, manage, discipline, or even terminate their employees is a major and continuing frustration. For example:
It’s easier to terminate an unacceptable employee while they are on probation that when they are off of probation!
When asked why, a number of reason for not taking action when it would be appropriate, ranged:
from the time and resources that govern public employment that it would take to pursue the matter to the costs to the agency if the employee pressed an appeal.
To understand how this difficult situation is managed, one has to consider:
the setting where these conflicts and personal interest arise,
the changing nature of public service,
the constitutional protections afforded to public servants, and the statutory requirements that govern public employment.
Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy refers to both a body of non-elective government officials and an administrative policy-making group.
Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials.
Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned.
The public administration in many countries is an example of a bureaucracy, but so is the centralized hierarchical structure of a business firm.
Since being coined, the word bureaucracy has developed negative connotations.
Bureaucracies have been criticized as being inefficient, convoluted, or too inflexible to individuals.
The elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy is a key concept in modern managerial theory and has been an issue in some political campaigns.
Some have noted the necessity of bureaucracies in modern society.
Some folks argued that bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and rational way in which one can organize the human activity and that systematic processes and organized hierarchies are necessary
to maintain order, maximize efficiency, and eliminate favoritism.
On the other hand, some also saw unfettered bureaucracy as a threat to individual freedom, with the potential of trapping individuals in an impersonal "iron cage" of rule-based, rational control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who chooses to expose any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public.
The information of alleged wrongdoing can be classified in many ways: violation of company policy/rules, law, regulation, or threat to public interest/national security, as well as fraud, and corruption.
Those who become whistleblowers can choose to bring information or allegations to surface either internally or externally.
Internally, a whistleblower can bring his/her accusations to the attention of other people within the accused organization such as an immediate supervisor.
Externally, a whistleblower can bring allegations to light by contacting a third party outside of an accused organization such as the media, government, law enforcement, or those who are concerned.
Whistleblowers, however, take the risk of facing stiff reprisal and retaliation from those who are accused or alleged of wrongdoing.
Because of this, a number of laws exist to protect whistleblowers.
Two other classifications of whistleblowing are private and public.
The classifications relate to the type of organizations someone chooses to whistle-blow on: private sector, or public sector.
Whistleblowing in the public sector organization is more likely to result in criminal charges and possible custodial sentences.
A whistleblower who chooses to accuse a private sector organization or agency is more likely to face termination and legal and civil charges.
Types of Human Capital
Civil Servants
General civil service employees are employed and managed in accordance with the merit principle.
The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections.
Political Officials
A person holding a position or occupation established by law or by the act of a government body, for the purpose of exercising the authority of the government in the service of the public.
This can range from cabinet-level appointees to press aides, policymaking officials with whom political loyalty is a given.
Political officials are appointed officials who help elected officer implement policy agendas.
Contract Employees
Folks who are employed directly by government on individual service contracts,
or indirectly as employees of contractors who deliver government services to citizens.
Special Employees
Are public servants holding particularly sensitive posts that serve special government requirements. (i.e. administrative law judges and officials who deal in national security affairs)
Modes of Adverse Action: Regulation, Prohibition, and Sanctions
There are three ways in which the government as an employer can legally affect or limit one’s exercise of perceived rights or liberties:
First, it can regulate certain activities by employees;
(when and where they can protest against their employer)
Second, government may act by prohibition;
(i.e. the ban on public strikes).
Third, government may punish employees who violate agency rules or statutes.
(this can be done by discharging, demoting, or transferring staff members whose work is deficient)
A Multiplicity of Interests Involved Many Conflicts
Disputes between public servants and government units involve a multiplicity of interests.
Employees have important personal interest in job security and advancement;
They also have a professional interest in effective and evenhanded performance of their duties.
Neutral competence can be roughly defined as nonpartisan professionalism in administration of government programs and services.
Unfortunately its difficult to find this characteristic in the day to day practice.
It seems that most folks, government or non-government, have personal opinions whether it’s supported empirically or not.
Conflicts of Interest
Protection of the Worker
Service and Fiduciary interest of the Public
Needs of the Employer
Constitutional Issues in Public Service
Among the most commonly presented constitutional issues in public employee controversies are:
the rights to expression and association (First Amendment),
to the due process of law (Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments),
to equal protection of the law (Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments),
and to privacy (Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments).
The Doctrine of Unconstitutional Conditions
This doctrine holds that although there may be no constitutional right to hold a public office job or receive a government benefit, government may not
condition a job on an agreement to forfeit constitutional rights.
Public employees may challenge actions by their superiors that interfere with
their fundamental constitutional rights.
Traditional government actions that infringe on these rights must cease unless the government can demonstrate a compelling state interest, an interest
so vital that it justifies the interference with the employees' freedom,
and the means to achieve those ends must be narrowly tailored so as to produce no greater infringement on protected freedoms than is truly necessary.
First Amendment Freedoms: Speech and Association
Because of the “chilling effect” the Court has
struck down a number of loyalty oaths for employees as a condition of employment.
The reason that some government requirements are declared void for vagueness is
that one who cannot understand what speech is permitted or which organizations are acceptable is likely to engage in self-censorship for fear of inadvertently committing some breach of law.
Where oaths are progressive rather that retrospective and do not force surrender of beliefs on associations, they have been upheld.
The Court has held that there are very few instances in which it is the government’s business to know to
which organizations one belongs.
Fourth Amendment Searches and Seizures
Searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment normally require a warrant, specifying the person or things sought and, in order to obtain the warrant, providing probable cause to justify the search.
Three types of warrantless searches have been of increasing concern with respect to public employees. They are:
Physical searches of one’s office; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Connor_v._Ortega
Mandatory drug testing; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner_v._Railway_Labor_Executives_Ass%27n
Monitoring of e-mail. A number of firms have installed software that’s used to monitor e-mail and Internet sites visited by employees as well as filters have allow the organization to block e-mail from undesirable sources or unsolicited bulk e-mail i.e. spam.
New and Old Federalism
Federalism is the mixed or compound mode of government, combining a general government (the central or 'federal' government) with regional governments (provincial, state, cantonal, territorial or other sub-unit governments) in a single political system.
Its distinctive feature is a relationship of parity between the two levels of government that can be defined as a form in which there is a division of powers between two levels of a government of equal status.
Federalism in the United States is the constitutional division of power between U.S. state governments and the federal government of the United States.
Since the founding of the country, and particularly with the end of the American Civil War, power shifted away from the states and towards the national government. The progression of federalism includes dual, state -centered, and new federalism.
New Federalism is a political philosophy of devolution, or the transfer of certain powers from the United States federal government back to the states.
The primary objective of New Federalism is the restoration to the states of some of the autonomy and power which they lost to the federal government as a consequence of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
As a policy theme, New Federalism typically involves the federal government providing block grants to the states to resolve a social issue.
The federal government then monitors outcomes but provides broad discretion to the states for how the programs are implemented.
Anti-Federalists Amendments
The Ninth Amendment (Amendment IX) to the United States Constitution addresses rights, retained by the people, that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
It is part of the Bill of Rights.
The Ninth Amendment has generally been regarded by the courts as negating any expansion of governmental power on account of the enumeration of rights in the Constitution, but the Amendment has not been regarded as further limiting governmental power.
he Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) expresses the principle of federalism and states' rights, which strictly supports the entire plan of the original Constitution for the United States of America,
by stating that the federal government possesses only those powers delegated to it by the United States Constitution. All remaining powers are reserved for the states or the people.
The amendment was proposed by the 1st United States Congress in 1789 during its first term following the adoption of the Constitution.
It was considered by many members as a prerequisite to many state ratifications of the Constitution and particularly to satisfy demands of Anti-Federalists who opposed the creation of a stronger federal government.
The drafters of this amendment had two purposes in mind:
first, as a necessary rule of construction; and
second, as a reaffirmation of the nature of federalism.
Equal Protection Clause
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "nor shall any State [...] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws".
A primary motivation for this clause was to validate the equality provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed that all citizens would have the guaranteed right to equal protection by law.
As a whole, the Fourteenth Amendment marked a large shift in American constitutionalism, by applying substantially more constitutional restrictions against the states than had applied before the Civil War.
The meaning of the Equal Protection Clause has been the subject of much debate, and inspired the well-known phrase "Equal Justice Under Law".
This clause was the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court decision that helped to dismantle racial segregation, and also the basis for many other decisions rejecting discrimination against, and bigotry towards, people belonging to various groups.
While the Equal Protection Clause itself applies only to state and local governments, the Supreme Court held in Bolling v. Sharpe (1954) that
the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment nonetheless imposes various equal protection requirements on the federal government.
Conflict over Privacy and Lifestyle
Questions
Does your employer have a right to regulate your off-the-job associations and behavior which include but not limited to your smoking, eating, or drinking habits?
Can moral disapproval of a group be a legitimate governmental interest under the Equal Protection Clause?
Dose the Equal Protection Clause prevent a State from creating a classification of persons undertaken for its own sake?
If an employer legally prevents an employee from smoking, can they also prohibit the employee from participating in risky recreational activities?
Are we allow to dislike another person?
The Problem of Discrimination
In human social behavior, discrimination is treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction towards,
a person based on the group, class, or category to which the person is perceived to belong.
These include:
age, color, convictions for which a pardon has been granted or a record suspended, height, disability, ethnicity, family status, gender identity, generation, genetic characteristics, marital status, nationality, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation.
Discrimination consists of treatment of an individual or group, based on
their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or social category, "in a way that
is worse than the way people are usually treated".
It involves the group's initial reaction or interaction going on to influence the individual's actual behavior towards the group leader or the group,
restricting members of one group from opportunities or privileges that are available to another group,
leading to the exclusion of the individual or entities based on illogical or irrational decision making.
Racial Equality
Racial equality occurs when institutions give equal opportunity to people of all races. In other words,
institutions ignore persons' racial physical traits or skin color, and give everyone legally, morally, and politically equal opportunity.
In Western society today, there is more diversity and more integration among races.
Initially, attaining equality has been difficult for African, Asian, and Latino people, especially in schools.
However, in the United States, racial equality, has become a law that regardless of what race an individual is, they will
receive equal treatment, opportunity, education, employment, and politics
Laws
The Supreme Court has found over the years that certain criteria used to treat people differently are inherently suspicious because they have historically been used to discriminate unconstitutionally.
They are referred to as “suspect classifications, “ the best example is how government action treats people differently on the basis of race.
Thirteenth Amendment
The abolishment of slavery in all states.
Fourteenth Amendment
Allowed citizenship to individuals that were born in the United States such as Native Americans and African Americans.
It also stops any other state to pass their own law which will violate this amendment.
It prohibits states from opposing any person's "life, liberty or property, without law coming forward on the individual" or to "deny to any person within its authority the equal protection of the laws."
Fifteenth Amendment
Allowed African Americans to vote.
Civil Rights Act 1866
Granted citizenship to individuals without discriminating or viewing race, color, or the previous act of being a slave.
Jim Crow laws
In Southern States, a law that enforced a separation of blacks and whites from public facilities such as employment, housing, education, politics, military service, sports, and business.
In other words, a separate but equal rank was given to the African Americans, yet there were almost no provisions made that allowed for the oversight of the "equality" of the facilities;
also, the legislation did not come into conflict with any other laws concerning citizenship or equality under the law
Affirmative Action in the United States
Affirmative action in the United States is a set of laws, policies, guidelines and administrative practices "intended to end and correct the effects of a specific form of discrimination" that include
government-mandated, government-sanctioned and voluntary private programs.
The programs tend to focus on access to education and employment, granting special consideration to historically excluded groups, specifically racial minorities or women.
The impetus toward affirmative action is redressing the disadvantages associated with past and present discrimination.
Further impetus is a desire to ensure public institutions, such as universities, hospitals, and police forces, are more representative of the populations they serve.
In the United States, affirmative action tends to emphasize not specific quotas but rather "targeted goals" to address past discrimination in a particular institution or in broader society through "good-faith efforts ... to identify, select, and train potentially qualified minorities and women.“
Affirmative action is controversial in American politics.
Opponents of affirmative action argue that these policies amount to discrimination against non minorities which entails favoring one group over another based upon racial preference rather than achievement, and many believe that the diversity of current American society suggests that affirmative action policies succeeded and are no longer required.
In particular, policies adopting racial quotas or gender quotas have been criticized as a form of reverse discrimination.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action_in_the_United_States
Statutory Antidiscrimination Programs
The statutes enacted by the federal government to eliminate discrimination fall into three general categories:
Broad attacks on discriminatory practices in employment;
Specific attempts to deal with sex discrimination;
Attempts to deal with special problems od discrimination and accommodation.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Sexual Harassment: a complex and Important Issue
Age Discrimination in Employment Act
Americans with Disabilities Act
Family Medical leave Act
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 enacted July 2, 1964 is a landmark civil rights and U.S. labor law in the United States that outlaws
discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in
schools, employment, and public accommodations.
Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years.
Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to
regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8),
its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment,
and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964#Title_VII
Major features of Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title I
This title barred unequal application of voter registration requirements.
Title I did not eliminate literacy tests, which acted as one barrier for black voters, other racial minorities, and poor whites in the South or address economic retaliation, police repression, or physical violence against nonwhite voters.
While the Act did require that voting rules and procedures be applied equally to all races, it did not abolish the concept of voter "qualification".
It accepted the idea that citizens do not have an automatic right to vote but would have to meet standards beyond citizenship.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 directly addressed and eliminated most voting qualifications beyond citizenship.
Title II Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; exempted private clubs without defining the term "private".
Title III Prohibited state and municipal governments from denying access to public facilities on grounds of race, color, religion, or national origin.
Title IV Encouraged the desegregation of public schools and authorized the U.S. Attorney General to file suits to enforce said act.
Title V Expanded the Civil Rights Commission established by the earlier Civil Rights Act of 1957 with additional powers, rules and procedures.
Title VI Prevents discrimination by programs and activities that receive federal funds. If a recipient of federal funds is found in violation of Title VI, that recipient may lose its federal funding.
Title VII of the Act prohibits discrimination by covered employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Title VII applies to and covers an employer "who has fifteen (15) or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year".
Title VII also prohibits discrimination against an individual because of his or her association with another individual of a particular race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, such as by an interracial marriage.
The EEO Title VII has also been supplemented with legislation prohibiting pregnancy, age, and disability discrimination.
In very narrowly defined situations, an employer is permitted to discriminate on the basis of a protected trait where the trait is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise.
To prove the bona fide occupational qualifications defense, an employer must prove three elements:
a direct relationship between the protected trait and the ability to perform the duties of the job,
the BFOQ relates to the "essence" or "central mission of the employer's business",
and there is no less-restrictive or reasonable alternative.
The Bona Fide Occupational Qualification exception is an extremely narrow exception to the general prohibition of discrimination based on protected traits.
An employer or customer's preference for an individual of a particular religion is not sufficient to establish a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification.
There are partial and whole exceptions to Title VII for four types of employers:
Federal government; (Comment: The proscriptions against employment discrimination under Title VII are now applicable to certain federal government offices .
Federally recognized Native American tribes
Religious groups performing work connected to the group's activities, including associated education institutions;
Bona fide nonprofit private membership organizations.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that administers and enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination.
The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on
individual's race, children, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, and
retaliation for reporting, participating in, and/or opposing a discriminatory practice.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as well as certain state fair employment practices agencies (FEPAs) enforce Title VII .
The EEOC and state FEPAs investigate, mediate, and may file lawsuits on behalf of employees. Where a state law is contradicted by a federal law, it is overridden.
Every state, except Arkansas and Mississippi, maintains a state FEPA .
Title VII also provides that an individual can bring a private lawsuit.
An individual must file a complaint of discrimination with the EEOC within 180 days of learning of the discrimination or the individual may lose the right to file a lawsuit.
Title VII only applies to employers who employ 15 or more employees for 20 or more weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.
ADA Amendments Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.
It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made
discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal.
In addition, unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also requires covered employers to provide
reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations.
The bill was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush.
It was later amended in 2008 and signed by President George W. Bush with changes effective as of January 1, 2009.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is bullying or coercion of a sexual nature and the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors.
Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from mild transgressions to sexual abuse or assault.
Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, churches, etc.
Harassers or victims may be of either gender.
In most modern legal contexts, sexual harassment is illegal.
Laws surrounding sexual harassment generally do not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or minor isolated incidents—that is due
to the fact that they do not impose a "general civility code".
In the workplace, harassment may be considered illegal when it is frequent or severe thereby creating a hostile or offensive work environment
or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim's demotion, firing or quitting).
The legal and social understanding of sexual harassment, however, varies by culture.
Sexual harassment by an employer is a form of illegal employment discrimination.
For many businesses or organizations, preventing sexual harassment and defending employees from sexual harassment charges have become
key goals of legal decision-making
Hostile Work Environment
In United States labor law, a hostile work environment exists when one's behavior within a workplace creates an environment that is
difficult or uncomfortable for another person to work in, due to discrimination.
Common complaints in sexual harassment lawsuits include
fondling, suggestive remarks, sexually-suggestive photos displayed in the workplace, use of sexual language, or off-color jokes.
Small matters, annoyances, and isolated incidents are usually not considered illegal.
To be unlawful, the conduct must create a work environment that would be intimidating, hostile, or offensive to a reasonable person.
An employer can be held liable for failing to prevent these workplace conditions, unless it can prove that it attempted to prevent the harassment and that the employee failed to take advantage of existing harassment counter-measures or tools provided by the employer.
A hostile work environment may also be created when management acts in a manner designed to make an employee quit in retaliation for some action.
For example, if an employee reported safety violations at work, was injured, attempted to join a union, or reported regulatory violations by management, and management's response was to harass and pressure the employee to quit.
Employers have tried to force employees to quit by imposing unwarranted discipline, reducing hours, cutting wages, or transferring the complaining employee to a distant work location.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_work_environment
Age Discrimination in Employment Act
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 is a US labor law that forbids employment discrimination against anyone at least 40 years of age in the United States.
The ADEA prevents age discrimination and provides equal employment opportunity under conditions that were not explicitly covered in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It also applies to the standards for pensions and benefits provided by employers, and requires that information concerning the needs of older workers be provided to the general public.
The ADEA includes a broad ban against age discrimination against workers over the age of forty, and also specifically prohibits:
Discrimination in hiring, promotions, wages, and termination of employment and layoffs.
Statements of specifications in age preference or limitations.
Denial of benefits to older employees: an employer may reduce benefits based on age only if the cost of providing the reduced benefits to older workers is the same as the cost of providing full benefits to younger workers.
Since 1986, it has prohibited mandatory retirement in most sectors, with phased elimination of mandatory retirement for tenured workers, such as college professors, in 1993.
Mandatory retirement based on age is permitted for:
Executives over age 65 in high policy-making positions who are entitled to a pension over a minimum yearly amount.
The ADEA applies to employers who employ at least twenty employees on a regular basis within the current or prior calendar year
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_Discrimination_in_Employment_Act_of_1967
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States labor law requiring covered employers to provide employees with job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons.
These include pregnancy, adoption, foster care placement of a child, personal or family illness, or family military leave.
The FMLA is administered by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor.
The FMLA was intended "to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families."
The Act allows eligible employees to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period to attend to
the serious health condition of the employee, parent, spouse or child,
or for pregnancy or care of a newborn child,
or for adoption or foster care of a child.
In order to be eligible for FMLA leave,
an employee must have been at the business at least 12 months,
and worked at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months,
and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.
The FMLA covers both public- and private-sector employees, but certain categories of employees are excluded,
including elected officials and their personal staff members.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_and_Medical_Leave_Act_of_1993
The Civil Service Reform Act
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, (October 13, 1978, Pub.L. 95–454, 92 Stat. 1111) (CSRA), reformed the civil service of the United States federal government, partly in response to the Watergate scandal. The Act abolished the U.S. Civil Service Commission and distributed its functions primarily among three new agencies:
Office of Personnel Management (OPM),
is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that manages the government's civilian workforce.
The agency provides federal human resources policy, oversight and support, and tends to healthcare, insurance and retirement benefits and services for federal government employees.
Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB),
This an independent quasi-judicial agency established in 1979 to protect federal merit systems against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices and to ensure adequate protection for federal employees against abuses by agency management.
MSPB is a successor agency of the United States Civil Service Commission
Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).
This is a independent agency of the United States government that governs labor relations between the federal government and its employees.
The Authority adjudicates disputes concerning the negotiability of collective bargaining agreement proposals, appeals concerning unfair labor practices and representation petitions, and exceptions to grievance arbitration awards.
Consistent with its statutory charge to provide leadership in establishing policies and guidance to participants in the Federal labor-management relations program, the Authority also assists Federal agencies and unions in understanding their rights and responsibilities under the Statute through statutory training of parties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Service_Reform_Act_of_1978
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Special Employees in the Public Service
