Would these actions fit the definition of retaliation?

I work for a federal agency. In 2006, while on educational leave, I filed a grievance through our employee grievance process alleging an unfair hiring practice by my supervisor. He arranged to promote an employee through what was ostensibly a competitive job announcement. He did not have an available FTE for the position being announced. As a result, only the employee who was promoted or another individual in our division could have been selected for the position. My supervisor personally worked with the employee who was promoted to develop the job announcement. The employee who was promoted was the only person in our division who was aware that a job was being announced (the supervisor told him when it was opened) and, as a result, he was the only applicant.

Through a quirk in our grievance process, the informal grievance was decided by my supervisor- who found that he had done nothing wrong. The formal grievance was decided by my supervisor's boss. The grievance was denied in July 2007.

Following the grievance, my supervisor has taken a number of seemingly retaliatory actions:

In Oct. 2007, I was denied the opportunity to participate in a research cruise on research for which our division has provided funding. The reason given was that the research was not valuable to our division. Meanwhile another member of my group was allowed to participate in a research cruise on research for another division whose work is completely separate from ours.

After returning to work from educational leave in Feb 2009, my request to telework on a regular basis was denied, even though another member of my group with an identical job and performance plan teleworks regularly up to two days a week.

In Nov 2009, my request to re-certify as a diver was denied. Prior to taking leave without pay for several months for school purposes, another employee and I had been divers for the division for 5 years. The reason given for denying my re-certification is that this other employee is the only diver we need - even though her job was changed last year to one for which diving is not a required or needed element.

Finally, I have learned that my supervisor wanted to downgrade my performance rating during my last performance cycle (Dec 2009) during which my supervisor was in another position and someone else (the person who rated me) was acting for him.

None of these actions are particularly severe, but they have created a difficult work atmosphere, and it does not appear that they are going to stop any time soon. Are these actions sufficient to meet the definition of retaliation? Thank you.

0 answers  |  asked Apr 19, 2010 12:23 PM [EST]  |  applies to Alaska

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