The $179.5 million back pay claim filed on behalf of 200,000 1980s era
special rate federal workers has been signed and sealed. The U.S. Court of
Claims gave final approval to settlement terms that sometime next year will
bring checks worth anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 to those who were in
special rate jobs between fiscal 1982 and fiscal year 1988. Many of the
special raters were denied some or all of regular annual federal pay raises.
The successful lawsuit was brought by the National Treasury Employees Union
which fought the government (and won) for nearly a decade. For details see
the special rate section on the NTEU web page at www.nteu.org