The Solidarity Docket
August 12, 2026
This week the Office of Personnel Management finalized four rules that move three categories of federal employee appeals out of the Merit Systems Protection Board. A federal court vacated the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s representation rule, another court ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to comply with an injunction it had twice evaded, and the Federal Service Impasses Panel returned to operation after eighteen months.
OPM Takes Over RIF, Probationary, and Suitability Appeals Effective September 2
The Office of Personnel Management published four final rules on August 3. All four take effect September 2, 2026.
Three of the rules replace the Merit Systems Protection Board with OPM as the agency that decides federal employee appeals. The reduction in force appeals rule covers furloughs of more than 30 days, separations, and demotions carried out through a RIF. The probationary and trial period rule covers terminations, assignments, and noncertifications of employees serving probationary periods, along with supervisors and managers who fail a supervisory probationary period. The suitability action rule covers appeals of suitability actions taken under 5 C.F.R. part 731.
Under the current system, an employee files an appeal with the MSPB, an administrative judge hears the case, and the three member Board issues final review. The employee or the agency may then seek review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Under the new rules, these appeals go to OPM’s Office of Merit System Accountability and Compliance, with final review by the OPM Director. Employees can no longer take the final decision to any federal court.
The fourth rule rewrites RIF procedures themselves. It prioritizes recent performance over tenure and length of service in determining who is retained, changes which employees are excluded from RIF competition, and revises the reemployment priority list, the career transition assistance program, the interagency career transition assistance program, and transfers of function.
For both RIF rules, what controls is the date the agency issues the specific RIF notice under 5 C.F.R. § 351.802. A RIF noticed before September 2 is processed under the current regulations and appealed to the MSPB, including cases already pending. For the probationary rule, what controls is the date the action took effect. Actions effected before September 2 are not governed by the new rule. For the suitability rule, what controls is the date the appeal is filed. Appeals filed with the MSPB before September 2 stay with the MSPB.
OPM reported that 99% of the roughly 1,250 public comments on the RIF appeals rule opposed it.
Court Orders VA to Comply With Injunction, VA Appeals Three Days Later
A federal district court in Rhode Island granted the American Federation of Government Employees’ motion to enforce the preliminary injunction preserving collective bargaining at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This is the third time this year the court has blocked the Department from terminating the collective bargaining master agreement it negotiated with the union. The Department first moved to terminate in August 2025, relying on the March 2025 executive order excluding VA employees from collective bargaining on national security grounds. The court enjoined that termination in March. The Department issued a new termination notice, which produced an amended injunction and the prospect of contempt proceedings. The First Circuit upheld most of that order in May.
The master agreement covers roughly 300,000 employees.The Department filed a notice of appeal to the First Circuit on August 10. Impasses Panel Reconstituted After Eighteen Months
The Federal Service Impasses Panel is operational again for the first time in more than a year. The President appointed eight members on July 9, and all have now been sworn in, according to a release from the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The Panel had been out of action since the opening days of this administration.
The Panel matters because it resolves bargaining impasses and can impose contract terms on the parties. Mark Carter is now FSIP chairman. He is a management side labor lawyer and chairs the labor practice group at Dinsmore in Charleston, West Virginia, where his national practice involves advising employers on their relationships with labor unions, including corporate campaigns, bargaining, and arbitration. He served on the Panel from 2002 to 2009 and as chairman during the first Trump administration, roughly ten years in total.
Thomas Beck is also now on the Panel. He served on the FLRA from 2008 to 2012 and as chairman from 2008 to 2009. The remaining six members are: Molly Conway, who writes a monthly federal labor policy update for Americans for Fair Treatment, a nonprofit that assists public employees in leaving their unions; Michael Greason, a commissioner on the New York State Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board with no federal sector experience; David Mansdoerfer, a former senior executive service appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services who served as its Chief Labor Negotiator; Frank Ricci, a retired New Haven fire department firefighter best known as the lead plaintiff in Ricci vs DeStefano (suing for discrimination based on being a white man), and now a fellow at the Yankee Institute writing on enforcement of the Janus decision. Joseph Santoro is a management side employment defense attorney in West Palm Beach without readily identifiable experience in federal sector labor law. Vincent Vernuccio was previously director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center, a presidential appointee to this Panel from 2017 to 2021, and the author of a February 2026 opinion piece on the cost of federal collective bargaining.
Senate Confirms MSPB Chairman, Special Counsel, and FLRA General Counsel
The Senate confirmed several executive branch nominees on a party line vote in the past week.
James Woodruff II becomes Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board. He has served as a member since October 2025, when his confirmation restored the Board’s quorum, and his term runs to March 1, 2032. Henry Kerner had been acting chairman. The Board’s composition does not change. It remains two members, both Republicans, with the third seat vacant since the removal of Cathy Harris.
Charles Baldis becomes Special Counsel at OSC for a five year term. He has functioned as the head of the Office of Special Counsel since spring 2025 while also serving as its chief counsel.
Charlton Allen becomes General Counsel of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The position has been vacant, and because the General Counsel holds exclusive authority to issue unfair labor practice complaints, that vacancy left hundreds of cases with no path forward. Federal employee unions opposed the nomination of Allen, specifically, citing his lack of any federal labor relations experience and his statement, made during a 2012 campaign for state office, that public employees should not be permitted to unionize.
A New Way for Former Federal Employees to Get Their Personnel Records
The Office of Personnel Management has launched the eOPF Documents Request Service, a public portal at myopf.opm.gov that allows separated federal employees to request and receive an electronic copy of their Official Personnel Folder. The service is described in detail in Government Executive.
Until now, a separated employee lost access to the agency eOPF system and had to contact a former human resources office or submit a written request to the National Personnel Records Center. The portal removes that step for employees whose records are already in eOPF. It is also available to current employees who lack a PIV card, government email, government furnished equipment, or agency eOPF access.
Sign in requires Login.gov identity verification, which means scanning a driver’s license or passport and providing a Social Security number. Former employees should wait at least thirty days after separation, because the final separation SF-50 may not yet be in the folder and an early request returns an incomplete file. The download link expires after twenty four hours, and the file is password protected using date of birth and the last four digits of the Social Security number. Because the folder contains sensitive information, it should be saved securely and not forwarded by unsecured email.
If the portal cannot locate the folder, the fallbacks remain. Contact the former employing agency, or submit a signed and dated written request to the National Personnel Records Center, which holds folders for civilian employees who separated since 1951.
A Note on the Litigation Tracker
Our Litigation Tracker is undergoing renovations and is not currently up-to-date. We are rebuilding it with the goal of making it easier to navigate and faster to check. We will let you know when it returns!
In Solidarity,
Suzanne Summerlin
General Counsel Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network
