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Washington, D.C. -- The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said today a federal appeals court has issued "a firm and prompt rebuff' to an attempt by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to avoid liability for millions of dollars in liquidated damages to former and current NTEU?rented employees of the agency. The FDIC estimates its liability at some $4 million.

NTEU President Robert M. Tobias called the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia "a speedy rejection of a frivolous appeal." He said the union will press for a prompt end to the matter, which has been sent back to an arbitrator to decide, under Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) guidelines, the appropriate statute of limitations and when that period should start to run.

The long?running case involves men and women who were key to the cleanup of the bank failures of the 1980s and 1990s, many of whom worked long hours on nights and weekends without pay. The initial grievance concerned the FDIC's exemption of liquidators and examiners from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The arbitrator ruled that the FDIC had to compensate workers for overtime hours, but he refined to order "liquidated," or double, damages, and he set the length of time covered by the award as starting only nine months before the action was filed.

NTEU filed exceptions to that portion of the arbitrator's decision with the FLRA, which ruled this February largely in favor of the union. FDIC then appealed to the D.C. Circuit, which granted motions to dismiss filed by NTEU and FLRA only three weeks after the final pleadings had been filed. The court found, as NTEU and FLRA had argued, that it had no jurisdiction to hear the appeal. Under the Federal Service Labor?Management Relations Statute, such decisions by the FLRA are not judicially reviewable.

Payment of back pay now awaits the arbitrator's decision on whether a two? or three?year statute of limitations is the appropriate time period. The three?year period will apply if the arbitrator finds the FDIC's violation was "willful." The longer the period, the greater the FDIC liability.