June 13, 2005
Payments of almost $20,000,000.00 will be made within the next week to 8674 former INS employees pursuant to the grievance filed by the (then named) AFGE INS Council.
You do not need to contact the Union to see if you will receive payment. If you are covered by this part of the INS FLSA case you will either receive a separate check or direct deposit per your usual salary payment method within the next 1-2 weeks. The Agency claims to have current contact informationfor essentially all of the persons eligible for payment.
The calculations as to how much money each eligible employee is entitled to and what deductions are to be made to each particular grievant (pursuant to law) were made by the Department of Agriculture, National Finance Center, acting as a contractor for DoJ/DHS. The calculations are, by their very nature, long and complex. Each payment is accompanied by a detailed calculation sheet (this sheet may come under separate cover from the notice of payment) for the particular claimant. There is simply no substitute for anyone dissatisfied with his/her payment to follow the step-by-step calculations that were made by the National Finance Center to calculate their individual payments. Merely expressing dissatisfaction with the total amount (or the amount of deductions) does not provide a reasoned basis to challenge a particular payment amount.
AFGE will closely monitor the payment process. Remember, the Union had no part in the actual calculation process. If the Union becomes aware of any error(s) in payment methodology we will challenge them immediately. Please give the Union some time to review the actual payments and processes before contacting us.
The payments received over the next 1-2 weeks do not include claims for "suffer or permit" overtime. The "suffer or permit" overtime claims are currently being decided by the arbitrator in this case after almost a year of hearings. The arbitrator has indicated that he expects to issue his award on the "suffer or permit" claims in August, 2005. We will keep you notified on this and any other matter concerning the INS FLSA grievance on this website.