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Washington, D.C.-The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and the federal government have set a target date of Nov. 30, 2000, for reaching an agreement on how to pay current and former "special rate" federal employees the millions of dollars in back pay owed them, NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley announced today. More than 188,000 special rate employees are covered by the class action.

The Nov. 30 target date was the focus of a status conference held today in U.S. District Court on the case that first began in 1983 when NTEU challenged an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regulation blocking annual salary increases to special rate employees.

NTEU told the court, and the judge agreed, that after 17 years, there is a need to bring this case to a close. Judge John Garrett Penn strongly encouraged the parties to reach agreement on how the back pay owed members of the class will be calculated. He urged the parties to use all resources necessary to resolve the outstanding issues by Nov. 30. Judge Penn scheduled a second status conference for Dec. 7, at which time the parties are to report whether agreement has been reached.

Expressing satisfaction with the judge's comments in court, NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley criticized the government for its failure to work toward a settlement despite NTEU's persistent efforts for more than two and a half years. "For too long, the federal government has not made this case a priority. It is denying justice to the people who have been

waiting years for back pay that is legally due them," she said.

A federal court, in January 1998, determined that special rate employees (those paid a special wage to work in hard-to-fill jobs) were denied salary increases in the 1980s due to an illegal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regulation. That decision, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, held that the government owed affected employees back pay, but sent the case back to the district court to determine the proper award due individuals. Since NTEU's 1998 victory, the union has attempted to persuade the government to agree to a plan to pay these federal employees the back pay owed them.

"NTEU has been ready to work with the government on a settlement since 1998," Kelley said, "and we are ready to work night and day to reach an agreement by the target date. It is unfortunate that we had to request a status conference before the government would agree to a target date. The government doesn't seem to understand the real life impact of people not getting their money. Many of the class members are now retired and elderly. They want to know if they will see their back pay in their lifetimes."

NTEU reserved the right to come back to court before Nov. 30 if it becomes apparent that no agreement will be forthcoming.

In 1983, NTEU challenged OPM's regulation which provided that annual salary increases given to federal employees under the General Schedule would have no affect on special rate employees-those workers who are paid at higher levels because they work in occupations that are difficult to fill due to their job duties or locations. The case was certified as a class action and the regulation, which effectively caused many special rate employees to receive little or no pay increases from 1982 through 1988, was determined to be illegal.