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Washington, D.C.—Publication of final regulations reassigning employees to a newly-created position in the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) runs the risk of making permanent unfair treatment that threatens to seriously undermine the morale of border security officers, the head of the union representing some 13,000 CBP employees said today. The final regulations are scheduled for publication in tomorrow’s Federal Register.

Effective on July 25, the new rules assign CBP employees to the new job classification of CBP Officer, bringing legacy inspectors from three agencies under the provisions of the Customs Overtime Pay Reform Act (COPRA). The inspectors from the U.S. Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Agriculture Department now are part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The new rules threaten to institutionalize unfair treatment of legacy Customs officers, under which they are denied pay for a mandatory sixth day of training each week, said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents the legacy Customs employees.

“It’s not only unfair and unjust,” the NTEU leader said, “even to the most casual observer the practice takes dead aim on employee morale. It couldn’t be clearer that it needs to be changed.”

Without further action, the new rules redefine the position of “Customs Officer” to include employees assigned to the CBP Officer position for purposes of eligibility for overtime compensation and premium pay under COPRA. Absent any other legislative action or regulatory action, that would effectively make permanent the pay discrepancy among employees in identical circumstances.

The issue arises out of CBP’s practice of forcing newly-trained legacy Customs officers and new CBP officers to undergo a sixth day of training—on a Saturday—at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, without paying them either straight time or overtime pay.

Kelley noted that the impact will be especially severe on newly-hired CBP officers. They will not only have to contribute an unpaid day each week, they will not be covered by any of the existing bargaining units within DHS. As a result, she said, “they will have no one to speak out for them” on this and other vital issues.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments.