The National Treasury Employees Union has announced that
it won arbitration with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, opening the way for as many as 1,800 SEC
employees previously paid special rates salaries to
receive more than $15 million in back pay.
The conversion formula used by SEC in 2002 when it changed
pay plans wound up reducing the base pay of some employees
by about 3 percent below what they were entitled to,
according to NTEU.
It said an arbitrator agreed with its claim that the
agency violated federal law, and ordered adjustments,
although SEC has a month to appeal to the Federal Labor
Relations Authority.
Congress granted the agency authority to adopt a pay
system comparable to other federal financial regulatory
agencies, but the union said SEC is required by federal
law to bargain with it over the system and they have not
reached a new compensation agreement.
NTEU, which has bargained over compensation at the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation, has proposed a pay adjustment
for employees in grades 1-12, and a pay for performance
system establishing a direct link between pay increases
and employee performance ratings.
