Fed to pay $173.5 million to settle union lawsuit

Associated Press

The government will pay at least $173.5 million in back wages and interest to tens of thousands of current and former federal employees in a deal aimed at settling a 19-year-old union lawsuit.

The agreement between the government and the National Treasury Employees Union was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, said the union’s general counsel, Gregory O’Duden. It must be approved by the court before checks can be issued.

The lawsuit wended through the courts for 15 years, starting in 1983. Settlement talks have been under way since 1998, when the union largely prevailed in a federal appeals court ruling, O’Duden said.

"There is well-deserved celebration that should go on," union president Colleen Kelly said.

A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the basic details of the settlement outlined by the union, but declined to comment further.

The suit challenged a 1982 Reagan administration regulation that said annual pay increases would not apply to so-called "special rate" employees, who are paid higher salaries than regular employees because their positions are hard to fill. The effect was that many of those employees either received no raises or very small ones, O’Duden said.

The rule was rescinded in 1988. All 212,000 special rate employees from the period when it was in effect were later designated part of the class covered by the union’s suit, including about 60,000 clerical workers, as well as engineers, medical personnel, security forces and others from a wide variety of federal agencies and cities.

Many of those in the class are not union members, nor even from federal agencies represented by the union. The union represents about 155,000 workers at various agencies.

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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