Schedule F News
OPM Acts on NTEU’s Request to Protect Employees

Acting on NTEU’s request, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has proposed regulations that would protect employees affected by a future Schedule F. This is a crucial and welcome step toward safeguarding employees’ due process rights and the integrity of the civil service.

Schedule F was a presidential Executive Order issued in October 2020. It was intended to enable agencies to fire more employees more quickly. It allowed agencies to move many employees from the competitive service to the excepted service, where it was assumed that they would have fewer statutory rights. NTEU immediately filed suit to stop the order. President Biden rescinded the order in January 2021.

Multiple presidential candidates are saying they would reissue Schedule F. Because of this dire possibility, NTEU petitioned OPM to issue regulations clarifying that employees moved from the competitive service to the excepted service would keep their statutory due process rights if an agency tried to fire them. NTEU’s petition also proposed limitations on how agencies could shift employees to the excepted service.

OPM today announced that it is proposing regulations in line with NTEU's proposal. The public will have a right to comment on OPM’s proposal before it is finalized.

NTEU has launched a new webpage with Schedule F information and news. Read our news release on today’s action.