Furlough-related appeals continue to pour into the Merit Systems Protection Board. As of this morning, the number of docketed appeals stood at 4,647, up about 50 percent in a week. And that number doesn’t include another 4,587 cases that have been received but are not yet docketed—most of which are likely furlough-related as well, Clerk William Spencer said in an email.
The surge temporarily knocked out the board’s electronic “e-Appeal” service a few times this week. It has also prompted the board to post the following message on its homepage:
“Due to the unprecedented large volume of furlough appeals being received in the Board’s regional and field offices from employees of the military services and Department of Defense activities (DoD), there will be delays in the docketing and processing of all DoD furlough appeals. The Board will also be unable to respond quickly to additional inquiries. We ask therefore that parties to the DoD furlough appeals refrain from contacting the regional and field offices until we inform you that processing of your appeal has begun.”
“We regret any inconvenience to the parties caused by the overwhelming number of appeals, but assure you that every appeal will be adjudicated with great care once we are able to begin that process.”
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I’m not sure why employees are filing these. Unless they are the only one in the office who is furloughed, there is no merit to any of these cases. Tying up the MSPB just clogs the system and lengthens the legitimate MSPB cases.
People are filing these appeals especially at WCF (Working capitol fund) places such as depots and ship yards because it is an illegal furlough and every member of the house of reps has already confirmed that! So file an appeal get your back pay!