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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing thousands of front-line border security officers has criticized the commissioner of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for incorrectly telling Congress—for the second year in a row—that new CBP officers are paid for a mandatory sixth day of training each week for as many as 12 weeks.

In a letter to CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) questioned his testimony of last week before the House Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee.

In response to an inquiry from Rep. David Price (D-NC), Bonner said that CBP officers are receiving straight-time pay for their mandatory Saturdays spent in training.

On the contrary, President Kelley wrote, “the fact remains that after two years of (subcommittee) members bringing this issue to the attention of CBP, affected employees still have received no pay whatsoever for their sixth day of training” each week at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA.

She added: “I expect you to immediately correct the record and provide the subcommittee with the accurate information that CBP still refuses to compensate CBP officers and legacy Customs inspectors for their sixth day of training” at FLETC.

The long-running issue of not paying CBP officers for this mandatory sixth workday during required training amounts to forced overtime without pay, Kelley said, and “has had a direct effect on decreasing the morale of the newest members of the CBP workforce.” NTEU represents more than 15,000 legacy Customs employees who are now part of CBP, which, in turn, is a major component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

NTEU has challenged the refusal of CBP to pay for a sixth weekly day of training at FLETC with a national grievance that has advanced to pending arbitration.