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Washington, D.C.-In a significant development moving a long-running special rates case substantially forward, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today told a federal judge it has "reached agreement on the core issues" with the Department of Justice.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the parties "are committed to promptly produce a written agreement" which will result in payment of back pay to the more than 188,000 current and former federal employees affected by the class action suit that began in 1983.

The parties scheduled another conference before U.S. District Court Judge John Garrett Penn for 9:30 a.m., Friday, January 12, at which time, Kelley said, they hope to present a written agreement. "After today's significant and positive development," the NTEU leader said, "I look forward to a written agreement and to full implementation."

Kelley emphasized the impact of NTEU's role in bringing the stalled negotiations with Justice back before the court. "This battle has been in the federal courts for a long time," she said, "and we intend to keep it before the court until affected federal workers and retirees get their money."

The class action suit stems from a 1982 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regulation, determined in a 1998 federal court decision to be illegal, which denied or minimized special rate employees pay increases during the 1982-88 period.

Follow-up court actions, including federal court appeals, ultimately resulted in an NTEU victory in 1998; since then, NTEU has been attempting to persuade the government to agree to a plan to get the back pay to the current and former federal employees.

NTEU's 1983 case challenged the OPM regulation which provided that General Schedule increases would have no effect on special rates employees. These are government workers who are paid at higher levels because they work in jobs that are hard to fill because of the job duties of the position or the work location.