Federal Government Policy and Business

Trump's Nominee for Employee Protection Board Has Checkered Past With Protecting Employees

Government Executive: In 2015, a federal court awarded a Social Security Administration employee more than $200,000 to cover attorney fees and other costs associated with the employee’s wrongful termination and ensuing legal battles. In issuing the ruling, Richard Matsch, a senior judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, said SSA’s lawyers had acted with “aggressiveness” and a “lack of professional objectivity expected of counsel.”

One of the two attorneys Matsch was referencing was Andrew Maunz, President Trump’s choice to serve as a member on the Merit Systems Protection Board’s three-person central panel. The case resulted from an employee who was fired, and later reinstated by MSPB, for reporting discrimination and a toxic work environment in SSA’s Office of Regional Counsel. That office falls under the purview of the Office of General Counsel, where Maunz was, and is, a senior attorney.

Read article