In July of 2004, AFGE Local 32, representing the employees of the Office of Personnel Management, filed a grievance against OPM on behalf of all bargaining unit employees. The Grievance alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other overtime violations.
Snider and Associates, LLC, as the legal representatives for the Union, are working hard for the bargaining unit employees to ensure that their rights under federal law are upheld. As part of the process, we have contacted OPM employees about their job duties and how much unpaid overtime they have worked.
In the years since the Grievance has been filed, the Union and Agency have resolved certain positions and many employees received portions of their back pay and other damages. The majority of the position at issue, however, remain unresolved. The Union has made numerous attempts over the years to engage the Agency in settlement discussions to cover the majority of the bargaining unit. The Union’s last offer was sent in December of 2014 and despite promises to do so, the Agency has not made a recent effort to respond the Union’s last offer. As such, the case will now referred to arbitration.
We continue to gather more information about overtime work from bargaining unit employees, gather certain data from Agency records, and in the future will be preparing witnesses for arbitration hearings (absent settlement). If you are or were in the AFGE bargaining unit at OPM, please contact us if you believe you have information to share about overtime for which you did not receive proper compensation.
The goal of the case is to recover damages for the Union on behalf of bargaining unit employees. Employees covered by the FLSA may be entitled to certain categories of damages, going back many years. Additionally, there are damages which flow from the Agency’s failure to properly designate certain employees as FLSA non-exempt.
All bargaining unit employees, whether or not they are members of the union, and regardless of position or pay grade, are covered by this grievance and could potentially benefit from a successful result.