30-YEAR-OLD BACK PAY CASE

Occasionally, an agency asserts that it cannot legally grant back pay for claims more than six years old due to appropriation laws.  Given that it can take more than six years to resolve certain cases, the employees with claims going back more than six years lose money if the agency argument is accepted.  In fact, if they retired more than six years ago, they would lose all their back pay entitlement no matter if they had an otherwise legitimate right to ten, twenty, or thirty years of retroactive compensation. So, we have made it a point to let Fedsmill.com readers know that there is a bundle of cases out there where federal employees have received back pay retroactive for decades.  Our post entitled, “How Far Back Can A Back Pay Claim Go?” lists a dozen examples and there is a new one to add.  Check out the FedManager.com story entitled, “30-Year-Old Job Discrimination Lawsuit Settled by USMS.” The U.S. Marshals Service has agreed to compensate employees and former employees for violations of their rights dating back as far as 1994. Apparently, the urban legend about some appropriation laws barring payments more than six years retroactive did not bother the Marshals Service, which is part of the Dep’t. of Justice.

Unionized employees must be particularly careful not to let the appropriations law scam cheat them.  It can be very tempting to union leaders to agree to drop claims older than six years because often the people who would get that money have retired and no longer pay dues. By dropping their claims the union has more money to spread among people who are far more likely to still be dues-paying members. For a deeper discussion of what rights former union members have Check out our post entitled, “Can Unions Sacrifice Retired Grievants?”