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Washington, D.C.—As many as 500 employees of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will be eligible for back pay and damages for improperly-paid overtime covering more than two years thanks to a settlement reached with OCC by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

The settlement stems from a national grievance NTEU filed against OCC in July 2003, little more than a month after the agency reclassified certain OCC bargaining unit positions from exempt to nonexempt status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). NTEU filed the grievance to ensure that employees receive the full range of remedies open to them under the FLSA. The parties reached agreement yesterday on a settlement that includes a claims procedure for reclassified employees to seek back pay for uncompensated overtime work.

“The successful resolution of this grievance is another example of the many benefits of union representation,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “The work done by NTEU will mean that these OCC employees will get the appropriate pay for the work they performed for this agency.”

NTEU, which represents nearly 2,200 OCC employees, sought the full remedy under the FLSA, including liquidated damages, for bargaining unit employees who were underpaid for overtime work prior to the reclassification, or who had worked uncompensated overtime.

Under the settlement, which covers the period from July 1, 2001 to July 12, 2003, eligible employees will be automatically paid the difference between what they received at the “straight” overtime rate and what they should have received at their FLSA time-and-a-half rate. They also will receive one-half their regular hourly rate of pay for each hour of compensatory time earned during the applicable recovery period.

What’s more, OCC will pay each affected employee an additional amount equal to 80 percent of her or his total back pay in what are known as “liquidated damages” for the initial misclassification of their position as being outside FLSA coverage.

The claims procedure covering employees who worked uncompensated (or “suffered or permitted”) overtime will result in payments to eligible employees of back pay plus 80 percent liquidated damages.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.