Navy employees win $200,000 in back pay

Twelve Navy employees will receive more than $200,000 in back pay as a result of a court settlement between the government and the largest federal employees union.

The Navy Department and the American Federation of Government Employees settled a 1990 lawsuit in June involving the question of whether 12 Navy electronic technicians were entitled to benefits under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which guarantees time-and-a-half overtime pay to covered employees. The employees will receive $202,000 in back pay dating back to 1987.

About 15 years ago, the Navy determined that the electronic technicians were entitled to benefits under FLSA, but then changed that policy based on a regulation from the Office of Personnel Management mandating that all employees in grades GS-11 and higher were exempt from FLSA.

AFGE filed a lawsuit against the government in 1987, and the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of the workers, deeming the OPM regulation unlawful. But the government continued to classify the employees as exempt from FLSA. The employees filed a second suit against the government in 1990 to recoup their back pay.

"AFGE and the Navy workers stuck with this case for 15 years and righted a serious wrong," said Bobby Harnage, president of the union.

The government, which did not admit liability in the case, must also pay attorney's fees to AFGE.