NCIS Investigator Wins Overtime Lawsuit But Loses Damages Appeal

A U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigator who was misclassified as exempt from overtime pay is entitled to compensatory damages and back pay but not additional “liquidated damages” because of the agency’s good-faith error, the Federal Circuit said Thursday.

NCIS is the Navy’s civilian law enforcement agency. John Shea worked as an investigation specialist for the service’s Special Surveillance Team. The job sometimes included serving as a team leader during physical surveillance operations in support of counterintelligence investigations.

NCIS classified this position as exempt from the the Fair Labor Standards Act’s general requirement that employers pay one-and-one-half times the worker’s ...