Pay glitch affects some border inspectors at Homeland Security

Inspectors with both the former Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service reported problems with paychecks this week as their former agencies merged pay systems with the former Customs Service as part of the Homeland Security Department reorganization.

Both the animal and plant inspectors, formerly part of the Agriculture Department and the immigration inspectors, previously Justice Department employees, are now part of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection at DHS. But since the department was created earlier this year, these inspectors continued to receive paychecks through their former departments. On Oct. 1, DHS took over administrative support for its agencies, and the former Agriculture and Justice employees were placed within the old Customs pay system.

But the Customs pay system is sometimes unable to process overtime payments for the agriculture and immigration inspectors. "Our people are missing some or most of their overtime payment," said Mike Randall, president of the National Association of Agriculture Employees. The problem, though, does not extend to all regions, Randall said. Agriculture inspectors in Honolulu have received their overtime pay, but many in New York and Miami have not.

Charles Showalter, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service Council said that immigration inspectors have also not received pay for overtime, Sunday, and holiday work. In some cases, he added, this extra pay can account for 30 percent of an immigration inspector's paycheck. "It's a sizable chunk of money, and we hope we can get this situation resolved as quickly as possible."

The Homeland Security Department did not respond to an inquiry from Government Executive, but a memorandum sent to department employees by Kathleen Mckevitts, national coordinator of the pay system integration project, praised the agency employees working on the integration for doing a "great job" with "excellent teamwork." The memo acknowledged, however, that the integration had not gone perfectly. "By now we know that everyone will be paid for their regular 80 [hours of biweekly pay] and we want to now turn to the overtime."

Mckevitts urged employees to report pay problems to their timekeeper. The timekeeper should then send an e-mail to the pay system help desk, she wrote. Still, Randall said that DHS officials had known that pay problems were likely long ago, and still elected to move ahead with the Oct. 1 transition. The agriculture union "warned agency management that the agency was too hasty in taking over administrative duties from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and, as a result, the new computer pay system was not going to work," Randall wrote to union members on Monday.

The union would be contacting Senate offices in affected regions, Randall wrote, and also may proceed with a lawsuit if the pay problems are not corrected by the end of this week.