Fedweek

Certain federal employees who worked through the early October 2013 partial government shutdown have been ruled eligible for additional pay for several days of that period, with potential additional payments if they worked overtime, as well. The Court of Federal Claims decision applies to those who: are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (that is, non-exempt); worked between October 1-5 of that year and didn’t receive pay for those days in their pay distribution covering those days; and joined the class action suit when given the opportunity several years ago (about 25,000 did so and the door is now closed to joining). The ruling said that even though spending authority had lapsed, the government violated the FLSA by not paying eligible employees at least the minimum wage. It ordered payments at the pertinent minimum wage of $7.25 an hour for time worked during those days plus a matching amount of any overtime they earned, at their regular overtime rate. After the partial shutdown ended, all employees were paid for that period regardless of whether they had continued working or were furloughed. The case now moves on to the stage of calculating payments, and final resolution still could be some time off. In addition, the government could appeal.