Union seeks order settling special rates case

The National Treasury Employees Union and the Office of Personnel Management were back in court Wednesday seeking a final resolution of an 18-year-old back pay case involving 188,000 federal employees. Lawyers for NTEU and OPM held the latest in a series of meetings in U.S. District Court Judge John Garrett Penn's chambers to discuss how to reimburse thousands of federal workers who were denied certain salary increases from 1982 to 1988 because of an OPM regulation. The regulation prevented employees with special salary rates from receiving pay increases based on annual adjustments to the government's General Schedule. According to the NTEU spokesman, the two sides discussed a motion NTEU filed with the district court ordering the government to compute the amounts owed to each individual and, upon the union's review, pay people accordingly. NTEU first challenged the OPM regulation--which the district court ruled illegal in 1987--in a 1983 class action lawsuit. In 1998, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the government owed affected employees back pay, sending the case back to the lower court to determine compensation. Employees are still waiting for their money. "The fact that class members still haven't been paid is a scandal," said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. "Many class members are elderly and want to know if they'll see the money owed them in their lifetimes. The whole situation is appalling," she said. Special rate employees are paid at higher levels because they work in hard-to-fill occupations or locations. "We've been trying to help the government with the logistical issues regarding the payout. But after three years of discussions, we're tired of the foot-dragging. The government needs to do the calculations and pay people now," said Kelley.