Special Rate Case Delayed Again

At the request of the Justice Department, a federal judge overseeing the special rate back pay suit has delayed until January 15 a court date for the agency and the National Treasury Employees Union to report on the results of court-ordered mediation in the case. It was the latest in a long series of delays in the suit, in which back pay is at stake for more than 180,000 current and former federal employees in special rate jobs during 1982-1988 and who had raises improperly capped or denied in those years.