Pride At Work Helps Blow the Whistle on Special Counsel

by James Parks, May 7, 2008

The recent headlines about an FBI raid on the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) finally validates the yearlong campaign by Pride At Work (P@W) to highlight the alleged mismanagement of the office that was created to enforce the civil rights rule and protect whistle-blowers in the federal workforce. 

In March 2007, the AFL-CIO constituency group created a special campaign, “Blow the whistle on Bloch” aimed at letting the public know how agency chief Scott Bloch had weakened the office’s mission. Instead of protecting workers’ rights, the office had become a launching pad for partisan attacks on civil and workers’ rights, says P@W Executive Director Jeremy Bishop. 

Hans Johnson, president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of P@W, says: 

The Office of Special Counsel is supposed to be the refuge for workers who are facing discrimination on the job. We hope this badly needed investigation by the FBI will reign in this office of critical importance, and begin the process of reinstating protections for workers on the basis of many categories including sexual orientation.  

In addition, we demand that any new occupants of this critical office extend protections to those of diverse gender identities as well. 

Soon after taking office in 2004, Bloch removed anti-discrimination protections for gay and lesbian federal workers.  

According to The Wall Street Journal, more than a dozen FBI agents served grand jury subpoenas at the OSC yesterday, shutting down the agency’s computer network and searching its offices, as well as Bloch’s home. Employees say the searches appeared focused on alleged obstruction of justice by Bloch during the course of a 2006 inquiry into his conduct in office.

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