Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
May 31, 2000, Wednesday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B02; FEDERAL DIARY
LENGTH: 664 words
HEADLINE:
'Special Rate' Deal May Be Just Around the Corner--or Maybe Not
BYLINE: Stephen Barr
BODY:
One of the government's longest-running sagas keeps unfolding, inch
by inch.
Justice Department lawyers have tentatively scheduled a meeting
for Friday with union representatives and Clinton administration officials to
discuss a settlement in the "special rate" class-action lawsuit. As many as
100,000 federal employees--engineers, scientists, clerical staff and others--are
covered by the suit.
But no one wants to talk about what's on the
agenda, the amount of money that will be paid or who will administer the
settlement. Still, it appears that the lawyers are making progress. "We are
hopeful that continued negotiations will lead to a fair and equitable settlement
in the near future. We are dedicated to bringing this long-running case to
closure," Office of Personnel Management Director Janice R. Lachance said
through an OPM spokesman.
The special rates litigation goes back to the
Reagan administration, which issued a rule that stopped the government's
long-standing practice of passing on annual pay raises to special rate
employees.
At the time, special rate employees were drawing salaries
higher than others in the same pay grades because they held jobs that the
government found difficult to fill. Rather than keep raising all special rate
pay annually, the Reagan administration decided to give salary increases in
places where it saw a need to recruit and retain qualified workers.
As a
consequence of that rule change, from 1982 to 1988, many special rate employees
received no salary increases or only small raises, the National Treasury
Employees Union said.
The union challenged the Reagan rule in 1983, and
the government has lost virtually every important legal proceeding in the case
since. But a settlement framework, which probably will cost the government
millions of dollars, has proved far more elusive.
Hearing on
'Offset'
There appears to be hope that another longtime
contentious issue, changes in the government pension "offset"
law, might get some traction on Capitol Hill.
Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr.
(R-Fla.), chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security,
is looking at the issue "with a view toward holding a hearing soon," said Trent
Duffy, press secretary for the full committee.
The offset law prevents
many federal retirees from collecting both a government annuity based on their
work and Social Security benefits based on their spouse's work record. The
National Association of Retired Federal Employees has been lobbying to have the
law changed, in part because it reduces pensions of low-income widows.
Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) has 236 co-sponsors for a bill that
would exempt from the law retirees whose combined monthly benefits total $ 1,200
or less. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) has introduced similar legislation and
has 19 co-sponsors.
Personnel Moves
Ray Baumler,
74, a longtime analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency, will retire Friday.
Baumler, a World War II Navy combat veteran, served 48 years as an intelligence
analyst for the Army, the Air Force and the Defense Department.
After 25
years of federal service, Robert T. Hilbish, an internationally recognized
expert in satellite communications, retires from the Defense Information Systems
Agency on Friday.
Roland Vaughan, a Social Security administrative law
judge, will retire Saturday after 30 years of federal service. He completes a
one-year term as president of the Federal Administrative Law Judges Conference
today.
William M. Feidl will retire from the Air Force Office of Special
Investigations on June 28 after 41 years of federal service.
At the U.S.
Customs Service, Robert M. Smith, who began his federal career with the Army in
1971, has been named assistant commissioner for human resources management.
Online Today
Join me at noon today for an online
discussion at washingtonpost.com.
Stephen Barr's e-mail
address is barrs@washpost.com.
LOAD-DATE: May
31, 2000 
