Labor Department Orders EPA To Reinstate Ombudsman's Analyst

Date: July 11, 2002

Source: News Room

Federal labor officials ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reinstate a senior investigator to his former ombudsman-related duties, after he filed a whistleblower complaint. The EPA said it will appeal the finding by the Labor Department that Hugh Kaufman, a policy analyst for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, "suffered a continuing pattern of discrimination" over the past several years. Kaufman complained that he was barred from investigating cases for the ombudsman, whose job includes responding to complaints about handling the Superfund program. In April, the embattled ombudsman for EPA's hazardous waste office, Robert Martin, resigned rather than be transferred to working within the EPA inspector general's office, where he said would have no power.

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