An administrative judge awarded $115,000 in back pay to a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter who sued the agency after he was “blackballed” for speaking out publicly about loose coronavirus safety regulations at the height of the pandemic.
“At first I couldn’t believe it,” the firefighter, Pedro Rios, said, speaking publicly for the first time since the ruling. “It was an overwhelming flow of emotions.”
The decision, issued in late February by Judge Michael S. Shachat with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, which oversees federal employee disputes, stemmed from two federal complaints filed last year by Rios, a firefighter with more than 13 years’ experience.
“All agency employees have a right to raise legitimate workplace concerns without fear of reprisal, as the agency itself has readily admitted,” Shachat wrote in his ruling. “I find that there is strong evidence of a retaliatory motive on the agency’s part.”
In an emailed statement, a spokesman for the Forest Service said he was “aware” of the judge’s ruling but declined to comment further.
Rios initially sued the Forest Service in February 2021 after he was denied rehire rights, the hiring process federal firefighters undergo every fire season, after a social media post criticized his managers' lax handling of Covid safety guidelines.
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