Bill would give administrative judges pay parity

A bill recently reintroduced in the House would make Merit Systems Protection Board administrative judges' salaries commensurate with those of other federal administrative law judges. The bill, "The Merit Systems Protection Board Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 2001" ( H.R. 1965), sponsored by Rep. George Gekas, R-Penn., seeks to raise the salaries of MSPB judges in order to improve recruitment and retention at the agency.

"The wage disparity between MSPB judges and other administrative judges has detrimentally affected the board's ability to attract and retain top judges," Gekas said. MSPB decides federal employees' appeals of major agency personnel actions, including dismissals, demotions and reductions in force. Over the last four years alone, MSPB has lost nearly 20 percent of its judges to other adjudicatory agencies. "The current bill restores a measure of fairness to MSPB judge compensation," said Gekas. Gekas introduced a similar bill in the last Congress. The House approved it, but the measure died in the Senate. The bill would also establish a three-year alternative dispute resolution (ADR) pilot program at MSPB aimed at settling federal personnel disputes without court action. Gekas' legislation would expand MSPB's jurisdiction by bringing cases to the board first, rather than on appeal. The voluntary program would use mediation, arbitration and mini-trials or combinations of these procedures to solve disputes. "Support for ADR enjoys a rare consensus among those knowledgeable with formal litigation and administrative dispute processes," Gekas said on the House floor after introducing the bill. "Resulting savings redound to the benefit of those involved and more broadly, to the taxpayers at large." According to Gekas, MSPB handled nearly 8,000 cases with a staff of 71 administrative judges last year. "This bill would help reduce this caseload by establishing a pilot, three-year early intervention ADR program at the board," he said. "A chief strength of the program is that it makes ADR available to parties before their positions harden in preparation for formal litigation before the board."