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Washington, D.C.-The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said today that, thanks to NTEU's efforts to "push the Justice Department to focus on the issue," some progress "finally is being made" in discussions over the mechanism for paying millions of dollars in back pay due some 188,000 current and former "special rate" federal employees.

"While some encouragement can be taken from the recent progress" which has occurred as "a direct result" of an NTEU-initiated court status conference in October, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said, "there still are a lot of outstanding issues."

Nonetheless, she said, "our hope is that the Justice Department continues in the same spirit" it has shown since the parties appeared before U.S. District Court Judge John Garrett Penn on October 24 for a status conference. Kelley made her comments after the parties met today with Judge Penn for a follow-up conference to review progress.

The October session was called at NTEU's urging, Kelley noted, because of what she called "the unnecessarily slow pace" of discussions toward reaching agreement on implementing the legal victory NTEU won in 1998, after years of litigation over this issue. For 18 months, the

government "dragged its heels," she said. The NTEU leader cautioned that while she welcomes the government's "newly-demonstrated commitment, still more work is required"on the payment issue because of its complexity.

"Special rate" employees are federal workers paid at a higher level because they work in occupations that are difficult to fill due to their job duties or work locations.

The case dates from 1983, when NTEU challenged what was determined to be an illegal regulation of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which effectively denied or severely curtailed pay increases for special rate employees between 1982 and 1988.

The 1982 OPM regulation provided that annual salary increases given to federal employees under the General Schedule would have no effect on special rate employees. The case was certified as a class action and covers some 188,000 current and former federal employees.

The suit has been in the federal appeals courts twice, including an issue over the formulation of the rules by which the special rate pay schedules should be adjusted to compensate for the impact of the illegal OPM regulation.

"Everyone understands that NTEU has prevailed in this action," Kelley said, "and we're working diligently, as is the Justice Department now, to establish the processes by which these deserving federal employees will get their money."

A further status conference has been scheduled by Judge Penn for December 18.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 155,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments.