November 19,
2009
NTEU Wins Next Step in Back
Pay Case Affecting 16,000 Employees
NTEU has secured another favorable decision in an
ongoing arbitration that seeks to provide back pay
to thousands of Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
employees who were improperly denied overtime compensation.
The stakes are high, with an estimated 16,000 current
and former legacy Customs CBP Officers (CBPO) who
may be eligible to submit claims for Customs Officer
Pay Reform Act (COPRA) back pay dating from 1998.
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Texas Leaders Echo NTEU's Call
for More Port Staffing
A coalition of Texas
elected officials and other local leaders
has reiterated NTEU's long-held position
that additional personnel are needed to
secure southwestern border crossing points.
In a document titled
“Texas Land Ports of Entry Crisis
Conference,” the Texas
Border Coalition (TBC) called for
$6 billion to upgrade port infrastructure
and hire 5,000 more CBP Officers over
the next four years.
"I am pleased to
see the recognition the TBC is giving
to the clear and pressing need for additional
personnel at southwestern border crossing
points," said President Kelley, who
testified on this subject last month before
a House Homeland Security subcommittee.
More
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In this latest decision, an arbitrator accepted NTEU’s
views concerning the breadth of the arbitrator’s
earlier interpretation of COPRA’s "officially
assigned" standard. In an October 2008 decision,
the arbitrator ruled that COPRA mandates compensation
for overtime work resulting from tasks assigned by
officials with appropriate authority by direct instructions,
either orally, in writing, or by other means. In this
decision, the arbitrator accepted NTEU’s argument
that his 2008 ruling requires COPRA payments to be
made for overtime worked to comply with mandatory
agency policies in situations where the agency fails
to provide adequate duty time and/or facilities to
perform that work. This decision allows employees
to submit COPRA claims for such required work as firearms
maintenance and canine-related tasks that officers
were forced to perform outside regular duty hours.
In the 2008 decision, the arbitrator also ruled that
these CBPOs were improperly denied coverage under
the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and could, therefore,
be entitled to compensation under the FLSA for overtime
work that is not compensable under COPRA.
CBP can appeal the decision, but NTEU is committed
to ensuring that the agency meets its obligation to
compensate employees in accordance with the law. NTEU
will provide details on eligibility and the claims
process as implementation of the arbitrator’s
award nears. NTEU is pursuing similar grievances on
behalf of legacy INS CBPOs and Agriculture Specialists
and is also pressing these issues on behalf of CBPOs
hired after July 24, 2004.
NTEU Stops Illegal Polygraph
Testing
When NTEU learned that the Office of Internal
Affairs was illegally ordering employees to take polygraph
examinations, the union took quick action and got
results.
As it turns out, the Office of Human Resource Management
was not aware that the Office of Internal Affairs
had instituted the new requirement. For years, CBP
has limited the mandatory use of such examinations
to job seekers and not employees already on board
because of concerns about the unreliability of polygraphs.
CBP is required to bargain with NTEU before making
significant changes to employee policies.
While CBP has agreed to return to this prior policy,
employees who are ordered to submit to polygraph testing
should inform their NTEU representative.
