Court: DoD violated veterans hiring preferences

Court: DoD violated veterans hiring preferences
By Elise Castelli - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 29, 2008 17:21:11 EST

The Defense Department violated the rights of a veteran who was seeking an entry-level, civilian auditing job when it decided to hire two nonveteran candidates instead, a federal court has ruled.

In a Dec. 24 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that an Office of Personnel Management authority that allowed Defense to bypass traditional competitive hiring procedures for entry-level positions was invalid because the regulation conflicted with statutory requirements.

Congress required that OPM give permission to DoD to pass over a veteran or other preferred candidate for a job, but in this case Defense made that decision on its own when it passed over veteran Stephen Gingery for a job at the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

Defense used a special authority to hire candidates through the Federal Career Intern Program, which under OPM’s regulation allowed the department to decide whether to give preference to the veteran. In exercising this hiring authority, the department denied Gingery, who has a 30 percent or greater disability, his preference rights, Judge Kimberly Moore wrote in the decision.

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UPDATE
The VA released this

To view and download VA news release, please visit the following
Internet address:
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel



VA Ramps Up Job Search for Injured Vets

WASHINGTON (Dec. 30, 2008) - Thirty percent of employees of the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are veterans - the second highest
ranking among cabinet departments after the Department of Defense -- and
nearly 8 percent of VA employees are service-connected disabled
veterans. But the VA intends to increase the number of disabled
veterans who obtain employment in its workforce.

"I am proud of this effort," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr.
James B. Peake. "VA knows the true quality of our men and women, and we
should be a leader in employing them."

Peake said all severely injured veterans of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan will be contacted by VA's Veterans Employment Coordination
Service to determine their interest in -- and qualifications for -- VA
jobs. So far, that office has identified 2,300 severely injured
veterans of those wars, of whom 600 expressed interest in VA employment.

The coordination service was established a year ago to recruit veterans
into VA, especially those seriously injured in the current wars. It has
nine regional coordinators working with local facility human resources
offices across the country not only to reach out to potential job
candidates but to ensure that local managers know about special
authorities available to hire veterans. For example, qualified disabled
veterans rated by the Defense Department or VA as having a 30 percent or
more service-connected disability can be hired non-competitively.

"Our team is spreading the message that VA is hiring, and we want to
hire disabled veterans," said Dennis O. May, director of VA's Veterans
Employment Coordination Service.

VA coordinators participate in military career fairs and transition
briefings, and partner with veterans organizations, the Department of
Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service, as well as VA's
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service, the Marine Corps'
Wounded Warrior Regiment and the Army's Warrior Transition Units.