Crawford v. Department of the Army
Jul 13, 2010OUTCOME: In favor of Crawford, Mr. Herrick's client
Mr. Crawford was employed by the U.S. Army Corps Engineers, a division of the Department of the Army, as an IT Specialist. While deployed, the Corps of Engineers outsourced all of its IT positions, inc ... luding Mr. Crawford’s. Upon his return, the Corps of Engineers reassigned him to a newly created position that did not include any of the duties he previously performed. At the same time, Mr. Crawford had no experience performing the duties in his new job description. Concerned this would negatively affect his career, Mr. Crawford filed an appeal with the MSPB, citing an Office of Personnel Management regulation that says if an agency abolishes the position of a uniformed service member, it is required to reassign the returning veteran to a position of like status and pay. While there was no change in Mr. Crawford’s pay grade, he claimed that his new position was not of “like status” to his former one. The MSPB Administrative Judge agreed and ordered the Department of the Army, not just it’s Corps of Engineers, to provide Mr. Crawford with a position of like status to that of IT Specialist, or the next best available position. Most recently, the MSPB ruled that the Department of the Army failed to comply with the original decision because it looked only for vacant positions that Mr. Crawford could fill. The Administrative Judge has now recommended that the Dept. of the Army be ordered to conduct a new search for a position similar to Mr. Crawford’s former position, whether or not the position is vacant.
