Your Case Team
An investigator and an attorney will soon be assigned to
your case. The investigator will look for evidence of the
prohibited employment practice(s) that you alleged. The attorney will
analyze the evidence to see if OSC can prove that a violation of
law or regulation occurred.
Generally, the investigator will be your primary contact
during the evidence-gathering phase; the attorney will be the
primary contact during the legal review phase. There is, however,
considerable overlap between these two phases, and you should
feel free to contact either the investigator or the attorney if you
have questions about your case.
Initial Contact
The investigator will call you within a few weeks to give
you his/her name and telephone number, and the name and
number of the case attorney. If OSC has not received your signed
consent form (blank form was enclosed with the letter
acknowledging receipt of your complaint), the investigator will verify
that you have agreed to the disclosure of your name, and the
information you provided to OSC, to the extent necessary to
investigate your allegations. The investigator will also ask you to
complete the consent form (indicating a Level I consent) and
return it to OSC.
In the initial call, the investigator may briefly discuss some
of the issues in your complaint, ask about any changes in your
status, and inquire about the corrective action you are seeking.
The investigator will ask you to notify him or her whenever there
are any important changes in your situation, and to provide any
additional information you may get during the investigation.
While your complaint is pending , the case investigator or attorney
will contact you at least every 60 days to tell you the status of
your complaint.
You may send additional documents and leave voice mail
messages at any time to update or add information to your case
file. If you have asked the investigator or the attorney to contact
you and you do not receive a response immediately, he or she
may be out of the office working on another case.
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Be assured that you will be contacted as soon as possible. If
you have an urgent message, you can ask to speak to the
investigator or attorney supervisor.
Case Priority
During the initial call, the investigator will tell you when the
inquiry is likely to begin. Normally, your complaint will be
investigated in the order in which the investigator received it.
Because there are many other complaints that must be investigated,
however, it may take several months before the investigator is able
to begin interviews in your case. In addition, some cases are
given higher priority than others and are taken out of sequence.
For example, a case in which a stay of a personnel action has
been agreed to by an agency or granted by the Merit Systems
Protection Board (MSPB) has highest priority for investigation;
cases in which there is significant public interest or compelling
evidence of a violation also receive priority. OSC assigns a
different priority to cases that involve relatively minor personnel
actions. These cases are investigated under modified, but expedited,
procedures that permit quicker resolution of the allegations.
Attorneys also work with heavy caseloads and process cases
based on established priorities. As a result, work on other cases
pending before yours may delay the case attorney's review of the
evidence gathered by the investigator. Many OSC cases are
complex, involve review of extensive documentary and other
evidence, and take considerable time to complete a legal analysis.
Stays
If there are reasonable grounds to believe that a prohibited
personnel practice occurred, OSC may seek a stay of the
personnel action involved until the investigation is done or a
determination can be made on whether a violation of law occurred. A stay
may be agreed to by an agency, or ordered by the MSPB. As a
general rule, OSC will only seek a stay of a personnel action that
would cause substantial harm, such as removal from your position,
a geographical reassignment, or a long suspension. (OSC's full
stay policy may be read at
www.osc.gov/documents/osc_d7.pdf). You may request a stay of a personnel action through the
investigator or the attorney on your case team.
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