Strengthening the Suitability & Fitness of the Federal Workforce

This memorandum directed the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to revise its regulations to permit suitability actions (including removal) against current employees for conduct that occurs after the employee has been hired, based on any grounds listed in the revised regulation. Traditionally, agencies have assessed the suitability of job applicants and new hires; being found “unsuitable” usually meant that you would not be hired (though the government did, in rare cases, conclude later that an employee was not actually suitable at the time of hiring). When the government has wanted to remove a competitive service employee for alleged misconduct that occurred while he was a federal employee, it has had to follow the requirements laid out in Chapter 75 of the Civil Service Reform Act. This memorandum directs the creation of an additional method of removing employees for conduct that occurred after they were hired. As with adverse action removals, employees can appeal suitability actions to the Merits System Protection Board (MSPB), but the MSPB can only recommend the reversal of a suitability action, which OPM is free to ignore.