Social Security employees face $3.8 million in work-related fines

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0107/010407m1.htm

Social Security employees face $3.8 million in work-related fines

By Jenny Mandel
[e-mail]

Four Social Security Administration employees have been informed of proposed fines of as much as $3.5 million for actions taken in the course of their duties reviewing disability claims, according to a grievance filed by a federal employee union.

Officials with the National Treasury Employees Union, which is representing three of the four employees in legal proceedings, said Thursday that the three attorneys and a supervisor have been told they face suggested penalties of $5,000 per violation for cases in which they allegedly used expert testimony improperly to help justify benefits decisions. The employees cited the testimony at the direction of an administrative law judge, union officials said.

This amounts to potential fines of between $100,000 and $215,000 each for the attorneys; the supervisor, who was involved with more than 700 cases, has been informed of a proposed fine of more than $3.5 million. SSA's inspector general office, which union officials said has been investigating the matter for more than four years, proposed the penalties.

According to NTEU President Colleen Kelley, the alleged "material misstatements" stem from the employees' repeated use of testimony by a single expert who answered a series of general questions in a single case to assist in determining benefits eligibility. Those statements were then applied to later cases at the judge's direction, Kelley said. That practice was taught in official training sessions and commonly used within the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review where the attorneys worked, she said.

Describing the fines as absurd, Kelley said the federal employees' actions should be legally protected in at least two ways: first, through the immunity that shields federal employees from personal liability for actions taken in the course of official duties; and second, through a quasi-judicial immunity that covers judges and those working with them. The immunity is designed to protect the independence of the judicial process.

FULL story at link.