The Foreign Service Journal, April 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2020 39 unable to achieve promotion and held it there through 2016. AFSA filed implementation disputes for each of those years. AFSA won the 2013 suit, and employees received “back” MSIs, with interest. While AFSA prevailed before the Foreign Service Grievance Board in the 2014 dispute, the Foreign Service Labor Relations Board overturned that decision. The Grievance Board ruled that it was bound by this decision in the 2015 and 2016 consolidated disputes. AFSA appealed that ruling to the FSLRB and is awaiting a decision. While awarding MSIs automatically out of the promotion process may seem efficient, it has become apparent that assess- ing an employee to determine their potential to perform at the next highest level is not the same as assessing an employee’s past performance to identify especially meritorious service. Specifi- cally, selection boards use the Decision Criteria for Tenure and Promotions to assess the potential of each employee to perform at the next highest level —i.e., for promotion. At the same time, how- ever, Section 406(b) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 mandates the Secretary to grant, “ on the basis of especially meritorious ser- vice [italics added], to any member of the Service … an additional salary increase to any higher step in the salary class in which the member is serving”—i.e., the MSI. The criteria for promotion and the criteria for an MSI are distinctly different. There were additional considerations. First, because MSI recipients had to have been recommended for promotion, signifi- cant groups of employees were excluded from consideration even if they had displayed meritorious service (e.g., employees not eligible for promotion in that year and smaller cohorts, such as office management specialists, with limited promotion oppor- tunities). Second, combining the MSI awards and promotion bogged down the selection boards, which meant that it took an The criteria for promotion and the criteria for an MSI are distinctly different.