Just what law is this? Is there a law or statute that actually prohibits government representatives or government employers commenting on personnel matters for federal (or any other governmental branch, for that matter) employees?

I’m not talking about discrimination or protected speech or truly private employee/employment information…but specifically-is there a law or statute specifically addressing employment concerns of government workers or employees, when there is (or isn’t) a public interest?

This is brought on by (most recently) the DOE refusing to offer any more than the above comments on the suitcase thief…but I’ve seen the excuse used frequently.

So, can anyone show a specific statute or law of the sort?

The reason is the employee is deserving of privacy and talking about personnel matters just increases potential liability.

Saying that, the .gov does use it as an excuse to skirt questioning on big picture questions quite often it seems.

Most federal agencies will cite the Privacy Act of 1974 which generally prohibits an agency from publicly disclosing information in the records it keeps. Various state laws probably come into play too, as do agency policies and pragmatic concerns about litigation.

Avoiding potential liability. It’s common in the business world too. If you call a company asking about a previous employee of theirs that you are looking to hire, all they will say is how long they worked there, and maybe their last position. Nothing about the circumstances under which they left.

5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6), Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) which states FOIA excludes release of

“(6) personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;”

The Merit System Protection Board also has rules, but the FOIA is the primary reason. See 5 USC § 2302(b), Prohibited Personnel Practices.