Workers who are eligible for hazardous duty pay and have been exposed to COVID-19 will soon be able to join a lawsuit seeking hazardous duty pay.
AFGE has been leading the fight to ensure that federal government workers who have put their health and safety on the line by reporting to work in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic are compensated according to the law.
Although we brought the case as a class action, the court requires each person to submit paperwork or sign-up to join the case. We expect to launch a website for people to use join the lawsuit by the end of the month similar to the website we used for individuals to join the case seeking compensation for employees who performed work during the government shutdown.
To join the lawsuit, you must be eligible for hazardous duty pay. Employees who are eligible for hazardous duty pay or environmental differential pay are those who are exposed to COVID-19 in the course of their work and whose classification of their position does not include exposure to COVID-19. They are not eligible to join the lawsuit if their position description includes exposure to infectious diseases as a condition of employment.
Background
In March 2020, AFGE along with Heidi Burakiewicz of the law firm Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman and Fitch filed a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims seeking compensation for federal workers who have been exposed to COVID-19 in the workplace.
Our lawsuit seeks 25% hazardous duty pay for exposed General Schedule employees and 8% environmental differential pay for exposed Wage Grade employees.
The government filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in December 2020, claiming that employees who work in close proximity to individuals who have been infected with COVID-19 should not be entitled to the additional compensation. The government also argued that Transportation Security Officers are not entitled to hazard pay pursuant to the 2001 law that created the Transportation Security Administration.
We filed our opposition to the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in February 2021, and we are still waiting for the court to decide the issue.
As our case proceeded, several other lawsuits were filed seeking hazard pay for exposure to COVID-19 for certain groups of federal employees. In one of those cases, the judge dismissed the case. The attorney in that case is appealing the dismissal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Our judge has partially stayed our case until that appeal is decided.
We always knew this was going to be a tough fight, and that it could be a lengthy fight. But we know it’s a fight worth having – one that workers should win.
AFGE is committed to continuing to fight to assure that eligible federal employees are compensated for the risks they face of exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace.
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