Social Security Loses A Big One In Little Rock

Social Security just suffered a big arbitration loss in Little Rock, Arkansas. (I uploaded this to Yousendit. It can only be downloaded 100 times.) The American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents most Social Security employees, had requested the arbitration over the firing of a union member. The employee was alleged to have engaged in misconduct in approving the use of Social Security's Critical Payment System for a $57,354 fraudulent payment made to another Social Security employee. The actions of the employee involved in this arbitration in approving the payment were only alleged to have been negligent. The employee involved in this arbitration was not alleged to have profited from her mistake. Another employee was guilty of fraudulent conduct and did profit from their fraud. That employee faced criminal charges.

Inconsistency in Social Security's treatment of its employees involved in this matter was a major issue raised by the union. One huge problem for Social Security was that the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) had investigated what had happened in Little Rock but the agency refused to disclose the entire OIG file, leading the arbitrator to presume that the agency was hiding exculpatory information.

The end result in this arbitration was that the employee was ordered restored to her job and was given $100,000 in compensatory damages and another $100,000 in punitive damages. I am not familiar with this sort of thing. Does it get worse than this for an agency?