MSPB Vice-Chairman Anne Wagner Named in Discrimination Suit

Posted on October 23, 2011 by mspbwatch

Anne Wagner, who was appointed MSPB Vice-Chairman by President Obama in 2009, has been named in a workplace discrimination lawsuit now pending in federal district court in Washington, D.C.

The suit, Williams v. Dodaro, (Civil Action No. 1:07-CV-1452), brought by a senior trial attorney in the Government Accountability Office, alleges “age, race, and sex discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile and abusive work environment.” The defendant is Gene Dodaro, the U.S. Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Wagner was, for a time, Williams’ direct supervisor as General Counsel of the Personnel Appeals Board at the GAO.

In August, the court issued an opinion granting in part and denying in part a motion for summary judgment, thus paving the way for settlement or trial. In a 2008 memorandum opinion by the court, Wagner is alleged to have “‘physically confront[ed] and loudly threaten[ed]‘ Williams ‘in her office on June 30, 2006,’ . . . ‘regularly disparaged’ Williams’s job performance during discussions with her co-workers and ‘routinely questioned’ those co-workers concerning Williams’s whereabouts during work days.’”