In an unusual ruling, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has found that an agency engaged in a willful violation of Fair Labor Standards Act overtime policy and extend the period in which claims for that violation could be made against management.
In case No. 05-142 C, the court was considering allegations by DHS employees that they were improperly denied overtime for one day per week for training they received at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center that went six days a week. The government ultimately conceded that it should have paid the overtime but argued that claims of many of the plaintiffs were filed too late, beyond the two-year statute of limitations for filing such claims.
However, the law provides for a three-year time period if the agency’s violation is deemed to be willful, and the court found that the department knew as of March 2003, after consulting with OPM, that it was obligated to pay overtime for the sixth day of a week. That information was communicated internally in the HR office, including in one email marked of high importance, the court recounted, but DHS continued its policy of not paying and delayed having the information posted on OPM’s website. Even OPM officials came to believe that DHS was unreasonably delaying the announcement, it said, and the posting eventually occurred that July.
The court said that DHS did not act within its discretion, especially since during the period it delayed release of the information it was not questioning the legal obligation to make the payments but only was concerned about the budgetary impact.
