A Benefit of NAPS Membership
By Chuck Mulidore
NAPS Executive Vice President
One of the many great benefits of your NAPS membership is the Disciplinary Defense Fund (DDF). The fund represents working NAPS members, as well as retired members in good standing at the time of their retirement. This is found in Article 9 of the Bylaws section of the NAPS Constitution and Bylaws:
“Section 1. NAPS is committed to representing its membership in all areas, including adverse action. The Disciplinary Defense Fund (DDF) was established by the membership, for the membership, to provide representation for NAPS members in appealing adverse actions, RIFs and debt collection actions taken against them.”
The DDF will represent you in any type of adverse action, reduction in force (RIF) or debt collection notice you might receive in your managerial career, as long as you maintain your NAPS membership. An adverse action is defined under the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) Section 651.71 as, “… discharges, suspensions of more than 14 days, furloughs for 30 days or less, and/or reductions in grade or pay.”
This means that, if by chance, one of these unfortunate actions might be taken against you, NAPS will be there to defend you. Best of all, your defense will not cost you one penny out of your pocket! Your right to be defended by the NAPS DDF is a benefit of membership in NAPS.
Now, compare that to the other management organization that requires you to pay thousands of dollars up front to even be considered for representation under its disciplinary fund. Imagine being in a removal situation or RIF and you have to pay several thousand dollars out of pocket just to be considered for representation!
That’s not right, but, then again, that organization is barely one-third the size of NAPS. It does not have the financial wherewithal to defend you as a benefit of membership. But, we do! Obviously, we hope you never get into that type of situation, but, if you do, NAPS will be there to defend you.
One of my responsibilities as executive vice president is to administer the DDF. I thought I would provide you an update as to the various types and number of cases, as well as our successes in defending our members in these types of cases.
The charts illustrate this point, but, essentially, though February 2022, NAPS received 66 DDF cases, including MSPB, debt collection and ELM 650 cases for those who currently do not have MSPB rights under the law. The average cost is just under $3,000 per case. Again, none of that cost is borne by NAPS members we are representing. Of the 48 MSPB cases, only four were lost. The remainder were wins, settlements or still pending.
Our positive results are reflected in the debt collection and ELM 650 cases we have, as well. As you can see, not only does NAPS represent you in these types of actions, we also do a great job in getting positive outcomes for our members!
You may be wondering what types of DDF cases NAPS receives. That also is illustrated in the charts. I encourage you to protect yourself from these types of issues in your career. As you can see, sexual misconduct (14 cases) and performance (15 cases) are the most prevalent. But violence, finance issues and falsifications also are significant.
In any of these situations, you can keep yourself out of the way of adverse actions simply by following one rule: Always do the right thing! You know what is right. Do not allow your boss or co-worker—in any way—to influence you to compromise your integrity.
I can promise you that, when push comes to shove, they will not stand by you. But NAPS will—now and always. So, as you can see, NAPS membership is the best insurance policy you ever will have in your career.
We hope you never need the NAPS DDF. But, if you do, we will be there to stand and fight with you.
