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Shaun Southworth leading a federal employment training session with members of the Southworth PC team
 

Federal Telework and Rising Gas Costs

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Federal employees are being asked to absorb a commute shock that is not just inconvenient—it is financially destabilizing. Recent reports place the national average for regular gas...

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Voluntary OPM Skills Survey: Know Your Rights

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OPM’s Federal Workforce Competency Initiative survey has understandably unsettled many federal employees. According to the transcript, the survey was sent to roughly 550,000 employ...

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DHS Reopens, but ICE Funding Fight Continues

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After the longest Department of Homeland Security shutdown in history, most DHS employees are funded again. TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, Secret Service, and other DHS components are...

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USDA Relocations: Legal Risks for Federal Employees

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USDA’s large-scale relocation of thousands of employees raises a practical question: if federal agencies successfully operated remotely during the pandemic, why require cross-count...

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HHS RIF Legality: Hiring After Layoffs

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A reduction in force (RIF) under federal law is supposed to eliminate positions—not simply replace the people who held them. That distinction matters. When an agency conducts a RIF...

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OPM Medical Data Proposal Updates

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A growing number of lawmakers are urging the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to fully withdraw its proposal to collect detailed medical data from federal health plans. Sixteen...

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HHS RIF Appeals: When Agency Statements Undermine Legality

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Recent congressional testimony about the HHS workforce reductions raises a legally significant question: was this truly a reduction in force—or something else? Under 5 U.S.C. Chapt...

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HHS RIF Lawsuit Survives: What It Means for Feds

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A federal court in Rhode Island recently refused to dismiss the challenge to the March 27 HHS reorganization and reduction in force (RIF). That decision matters because it confirms...

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IRS W-2 Errors Force Employees to Amend Tax Returns

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Few stories capture the strain on today’s federal workforce more clearly than this one: the IRS reportedly told employees that their W-2 forms were incorrect just weeks before Tax ...

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Schedule Policy/Career: Before You Sign the Form

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Federal employees have not yet seen formal Schedule Policy/Career conversions implemented—but the paperwork is already in place. The Office of Personnel Management has prepared an ...

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TSA Shutdown Pay and ICE Deployment Risks

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TSA officers have now spent weeks working without pay during the DHS shutdown—many for nearly half the fiscal year under some form of funding lapse. The law does guarantee back pay...

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Unlawful DOJ Leadership and Federal Employee Risk

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A federal judge in New Jersey recently stopped a sentencing hearing, ordered a DOJ prosecutor removed from the courtroom after repeated interruptions, and demanded sworn testimony ...

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Civil Rights for Civil Servants

Hear Shaun Southworth and Lydia Taylor explain federal employee rights, public service, workplace systems, and the people navigating them.

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About the people behind the work

Shaun Southworth & Lydia Taylor

Meet the federal employment attorneys behind this public-education work and the podcast Civil Rights for Civil Servants.

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