Federal Worker Back Pay Act Rights Reduced in Proposed Rule (1)

Federal employees would no longer be entitled to collect back pay for unjustified personnel actions such as overtime payment shortfalls or incorrect performance bonus rejections, under a proposed rule that the government’s central human resources office calls the first substantive change to the agency’s Back Pay Act regulations since 1981.

Unions that represent federal workers also would no longer be eligible to recover attorneys’ fees for Back Pay Act actions under the proposal. The law contemplated payments to eligible employees, and not their union representatives, the Office of Personnel Management said in a proposed rule released Tuesday.

The proposal would ...