Now that the unions' contracts have been terminated the VA has declared open season on attacking employees. Their latest weapon of choice is the "fit-to-work" process. This process allows them to terminate anyone they see as medically unfit to work even if these employees have formal RA (reasonable accommodations in place) or FMLA paperwork. Workers are scheduled without their knowing for a medical exam on super short notice with a VA doctor/representatives for an exam to see if they are physically or mentally fit to do their job. They are told that they can have on outside doctor do the exam, but they are not given enough time to arrange outside testing and if they go outside of the VA they have to do it at their personal cost. Forcing the VA doctor/representative allows the VA to use bias to get rid of whoever they want to.
Example: I have already told you in previous articles about some of the training issues with the VA not providing good training to employees on changes to their jobs. Also, the managers tell employees to ask questions and that it is a safe space to do so, when in truth they are building 'evidence' to get rid of employees. One employee who asked 'too many' questions was submitted to this process for being mentally unfit to do their job. The complaint against the employee was that they asked too many questions and that they were having issues to log into one of the computer systems (because we all know that technology works perfectly all of the time....). This is even with proof that others were experiencing similar issues/questions and even other supervisors had issues trying to get the computer system to work like it should. As soon as the employee requested to be transferred to a different position/department the exam was canceled. This clearly shows that the department was using this process to get rid of the employee and was satisfied with the outcome. This employee has filed formal discrimination and harassment charges against this department/leadership not only for their actions around the exam but also for microaggressions both before the surprise exam and after. The department is also dragging their feet in transferring the employee even though other employees have been quickly transferred in the past. This allows them to continue to mentally abuse this employee.
The VA knew that they would be going after employees and that is why they got rid of the unions. But the joke is on them. With the unions in place cases like this could have gone through an internal process to get resolved. Now the VA is open to lawsuits and external coverage like this.
If you have a VA story you want to share either as an employee or a veteran who have been mistreated by the VA do not be afraid to tell your story out loud. I would be more than happy to help you get your story out there to be heard. Just reach out to me. The VA need to be held accountable for the abuses they have done and silence will achieve nothing.
#AFGE #union #abuse #veteransadministration #VA
