The Department of Energy is changing the rules for its agency-wide Employee Concerns Program, removing a mandate that employees be allowed to have someone other than their immediate supervisor inspect their claims, and aiming to resolve concerns quickly.
The Employee Concerns Program is a sort of whistleblower channel for agency and contractor employees.
The old DOE order, issued in 2001, prohibited an employee’s immediate supervisor from investigating that worker’s concern, “unless otherwise agreed to by the employee.” That directive is absent from DOE Order order 442.1B, which was recently published online and dated Jan. 31.
The new order also aims to close employee concerns within a few months: “The goal of the [Employee Concerns Program] is to close Employee Concerns within 90 calendar days from date of receipt of the Employee Concern. However, closure of the Employee Concern will depend on the supporting information and circumstances of the Employee Concern.”
The old order set no ideal timeline for closing concerns.
There is also no mention in Order 442.1B of the quarterly and annual reports on employee concerns required by the 2001 order. Under the old order, employee concerns managers had to report periodically on employee concerns trends, such as the frequency and nature of reports.
The new order, like the old order, applies to DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Both contractors and federal workers may use the program. Contractors whose contracts oblige them to comply with the older Employee Concerns Program rules must comply with those rules until and unless DOE modifies their contracts to adopt the new program rules, according to Order 442.1B.
