An arbitrator has awarded hundreds of employees
of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement back pay for undocumented “suffer or
permit” overtime they worked over ten years ago
as Immigration and Naturalization Service employees
prior to the formation of the Department of
Homeland Security in 2002.
The American Federation of Government Employees,
which filed the grievance in 1994, said the agency
has delayed moving forward with arbitration for
years, but after securing a $20 million initial
payment from DHS last June for traditional overtime
under the Fair Labor Standards Act, an arbitrator
also awarded compensation for undocumented
overtime, such as time spent while traveling to
a temporary duty station or working through an
“off the clock” lunch, for example.
The 700-plus page decision is available at
www.afge.org.