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The American Federation of Government Employees has teamed up with a New York law firm to help federal employee reservists collect thousands of dollars in back pay.

The union and Tully, Rinckey & Associates will co-represent about 10,000 AFGE members who claim they were improperly charged leave for reserve duties, even if such duties occurred on weekends, federal holidays or other days when they were not regularly scheduled to work.

"Our partnership with AFGE shows true national leadership within the legal field by attorneys within our firm," said founding partner Mathew Tully. "The opportunity to connect with such a respected union and assist thousands of members is one which we are proud to have."

By law, federal employee reservists are given 15 days of military leave annually, with the ability to carry any unused leave into the following year. But prior to a 2000 amendment, the government's standard practice was to charge reservists with military leave for every day they were on reserve duty, even if a portion of the leave occurred on days when they were not regularly scheduled to work. This forced many federal employees to dip into annual and sick leave and leave without pay to perform reserve duties.

In 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in Butterbaugh v. Department of Justice that the government's practice of charging military leave constituted the denial of a benefit of employment in violation of the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

AFGE, which brought the Butterbaugh suit, experienced a surge of claims from union members after the decision, said Joe Henderson, assistant general counsel for AFGE. "Obviously, the claims we initiated were the tip of the iceberg . . ." Henderson said. "We thought [the partnership] would be in the best interest of our members, especially with the facilities this law firm has developed in moving these claims."

The federal circuit also ruled in August that one of Tully's clients -- retired civilian Air Force mechanic Jose Hernandez -- was entitled to back pay for improperly charged leave from 1980 to 2001. The court affirmed that the Merit Systems Protection Board has the authority to order relief for violations of USERRA, even for service prior to the law's enactment. As a result, federal employee reservists now can seek credit for improperly charged leave dating back to 1980.

Tully estimated that 300,000 federal employees could be affected by the Hernandez decision, with the average amount of compensation per employee totaling more than $3,000.

"Our firm is completely dedicated to the protection of veterans' rights," Tully said. "This is only the beginning."

The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday to examine how the Labor Department and the Office of Special Counsel have been enforcing the USERRA law.

COMMENTS

• I, like many military technicians, have been struggling with obtaining time and attendance (T&A) reports to verify I was harmed as a result of being charged military leave for non-duty days. I recommend National Guard and Reserve centers in each state be required to have a person assigned solely to assist technicians in obtaining orders and T&A records to support their request for restored annual leave. The person may have to spend time determining where the material is stored, such as microfiche, file storage holding areas, or computer databases, but I am confident the NG and Reserves have the old military orders and time and attendance records on hand. Additionally, I would like to challenge the statement that military technicians were not harmed if they did not have to use annual leave or leave without pay to attend military training. All military technicians were harmed as a result of being charged military leave for non-duty days. The reduced military leave resulted in technicians not having the leave available to attend career enhancing opportunities or military schools. Many military technicians, such as single parents, did not have the luxury of using annual leave or taking leave without pay to attend military schools. If their military leave had not been depleted, they would have had increased opportunities to enhance their military careers. Belinda Harris Posted November 5, 2007 5:39 PM
• I’m very familiar with this process. I worked at a Naval Shipyard for fifteen years and a Defense Finance Center for twelve years. During that time I was in the USAFR for twenty four years on a flight crew that required more participation than the norm. I averaged 30 days active duty per year using 15 days military, and 15 days annual leave, or weekend duty or vacation days. I filed a case and was told that they could only go back to my time at the Finance Center, not the Naval Shipyard time. My claim against the Finance Center was denied. The lawyer office called me wanting me to provided military orders for all the time I went on active duty. I thought that these people would be able to easily access pay records and be able to compare your duty status with work status and make a determination of your claim. I guess they file the claim you do the research. This whole cycle took about a year. What a waste of time. Nolan Posted November 5, 2007 10:27 AM
• Bottom line is that people should not be charged any type of leave status if they are not scheduled to work. Michael Dutton Posted November 2, 2007 7:27 AM