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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has won an important federal court victory that will allow it to pursue back pay and other monetary damages for import specialists in the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) who were improperly excluded from the overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the decision by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims should result in back pay and other monetary damages for CBP import specialists in grades 12-14 who were improperly classified as FLSA-exempt. Import specialists play key roles in collecting tariff duties and facilitating the more than $1 trillion worth of trade that crosses U.S. borders every year. There are approximately 300 CBP import specialists in GS-12 and 13 positions; approximately 100 joined the NTEU litigation.

The long-running case ultimately was decided based on the experience of a single CBP import specialist in grades 12 and 13 who was wrongfully denied time-and-a-half pay for his overtime work. President Kelley said that NTEU and CBP had previously agreed that the plaintiff in this case was representative of the entire group of agency GS-12 and 13 import specialists.

Based on the court’s decision, NTEU will now pursue with CBP a remedy for the FLSA violation—including the reclassification of all import specialists in grades 12-14 to FLSA-nonexempt status, as well as monetary damages for those who joined in the NTEU litigation. Monetary relief for many of these employees should date back to the early 1990’s.

The case is a continuation of NTEU’s efforts on behalf of CBP import specialists. Earlier, CBP agreed to voluntarily reclassify as FLSA-nonexempt import specialists in grades 11 and below. Those employees have been receiving their time-and-a-half overtime pay since Dec. 31, 2000. Employees in that group who had joined in NTEU’s FLSA lawsuit also received monetary damages.

In this latest development, the Court of Federal Claims rejected CBP’s arguments that the representative plaintiff was a bona fide ‘administrator’ or ‘professional’ who would thus be exempt from FLSA coverage. It analyzed the daily duties of an import specialist and concluded that while the job does require a high degree of skill and expertise, it does not require the employee to perform functions that satisfy the FLRA exemption regulations.

Kelley said the court’s decision “provides sufficient detail to guide the parties in their settlement discussions” affecting GS-12 and 13 employees, and likely impacting GS-14 employees as well.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including some 14,000 CBP inspectors, import specialists and other categories of employees.