July 3, 2001 In the Matter of the Petition by EDWARD MCWILLIAMS 18 Ellen Drive at Bellmawr, NJ 08031-2726 P.S. Docket No. DCA 00-454 APPEARANCE FOR PETITIONER: Charles Scialla 453 Preakness Avenue, #5 Paterson, NJ 07502-1121 APPEARANCE FOR RESPONDENT: Theresa Hensel Labor Relations Specialist United States Postal Service P.O. Box 9001 Bellmawr, NJ 08099-9401
FINAL DECISION UNDER THE DEBT COLLECTION ACT OF 1982
Petitioner, Edward McWilliams, filed a Petition for Hearing Under the Debt Collection Act after receiving a Notice of Involuntary Administrative Salary Offsets stating the Postal Service’s intention to deduct $8,641.06 from his salary to recover for alleged overpayments of pay occurring in 1998 and 1999.
At Petitioner’s request, an oral hearing was conducted. The parties presented documents and testimony of witnesses and submitted written closing arguments after the hearing.
The following findings of fact are based on the documents submitted and the testimony of the witnesses at the hearing.
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. In 1998, Petitioner was a level EAS 16 Customer Services Supervisor in the Mt. Laurel, New Jersey Post Office (Transcript of Hearing, Pages ("Tr.") 184-185).
2. As a level 16 special exempt supervisor, Petitioner was eligible for additional straight time, known as "T" time, for hours over 40 that he worked in a week (Tr. 58-59, 66; ELM 432.112 a (2)).
3. In 1996, negotiations between Respondent and the supervisors’ organization led to Respondent’s establishment of a pay package applicable to supervisors. That package provided,
"[E]xempt EAS-18’s and below will be eligible for additional pay if required to work beyond 40 hours of work in the work week, provided they are engaged in the direct supervision of bargaining unit employees in a production operation. . . . Such individuals also will be eligible for additional pay under the conditions described above for work performed on their non-scheduled days and for work performed on their holiday up to 8 hours, regardless of the number of hours worked in their regular work schedule. . . ." (RX 5 (NAPS Pay Consultations Final Decision, April 17, 1996, p. 3 of 6)).
4. At Mt. Laurel, Petitioner worked Monday through Friday and covered the office as the supervisor on Saturday, the postmaster’s day off, which was also Petitioner’s scheduled day off. Petitioner was paid at level 16 for all the hours he worked, including "T" time for Saturday and any other hours he worked over 40 during the week. (Tr. 184-185; Respondent’s Exhibit ("RX") B).
5. In late 1998, Petitioner was asked to become the Officer-in-Charge ("OIC") at the Willingboro, New Jersey Post Office (Tr. 123-124). An OIC appointment is the temporary assignment of an employee to act as a postmaster during which the accountability of the post office is transferred to the OIC (Employee and Labor Relations Manual ("ELM") 417.311).
6. Petitioner’s service as the Willingboro OIC began on October 17, 1998, which was the beginning of week 2 of pay period 22/98 (Tr. 123-124, 148; RX B).
7. The Willingboro postmaster position Petitioner was filling was a level EAS 21, a position exempt from the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). During his detail to that position as OIC, Petitioner was considered to be FLSA-exempt. Accordingly, he was salaried and entitled to the week’s pay at the higher, EAS 21 level, but no overtime or "T" time, even if he worked more than 40 hours during the week. (Tr. 57-58, 85, 124-125; ELM 432.112 a).
8. Petitioner was not aware when he accepted the appointment that he was no longer eligible for additional time for working on his day off or working beyond 40 hours in a week. He had never been an OIC before, and he was given no training or instruction regarding his pay circumstance. He was never told that he would not be paid for extra hours worked. As Petitioner could earn substantially more by being paid for all of the hours he worked at the level 16 than he could being paid salary at the EAS 21 level, Petitioner would not have accepted the OIC assignment if he had known of the limitations. (Tr. 130, 157, 163-164, 168, 175, 188).
9. After Petitioner’s assignment to Willingboro, his regular work schedule was Monday through Friday; he did not work Saturdays in the Willingboro Post Office (RX B; ELM 432.34 ("A full-time postmaster is scheduled to work a 40-hour workweek. Normally, this regular work schedule is set at 8 hours a day and 5 days a week, Monday through Friday.")).
10. However, the Mt. Laurel Postmaster asked Petitioner to continue covering the Mt. Laurel Post Office on Saturdays as the level 16 supervisor, and the postmaster assumed Petitioner would be paid extra time the same as any other supervisor required to work his day off (RX 12). Petitioner agreed to the arrangement, and he worked as a level 16 at Mt. Laurel (and perhaps occasionally at the Barrington Post Office) 22 Saturdays while he was the Willingboro OIC: October 17 and 21, November 21 and 28, December 5, 12, 19 and 26, 1998, and January 2, 9, 16 and 23, February 6, 13, 20 and 27, March 13, 20 and 27, April 10 and 17, and May 1, 1999. He was paid at the level 16 rate for these Saturdays.1 (Tr. 126-127, 184-186; RX B; Petitioner’s Exhibit ("PX") 4).
11. Petitioner was never told he should not be working those Saturdays or that he would not be paid for working them (Tr. 163-168).
12. In May of 1999, the Mt. Laurel Postmaster left on a detail, and Petitioner was assigned to be the OIC in Mt. Laurel. He continued the practice of letting the other supervisors in the office have Saturday off and worked Saturdays himself at the Mt. Laurel Post Office. He generally worked Monday through Friday at level 21 and on 9 Saturdays he entered his pay into the system as a level 16: May 15, June 12, 19 and 26, July 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31, 1999. (Tr. 158; RX B).
13. During Petitioner’s service in OIC positions, his direct manager, the Manager of Post Office Operations at the South Jersey District, occasionally asked him to participate in route inspections at other post offices in the area. This was a task commonly asked of postmasters in the area, and they were not entitled to additional compensation for such work, even if it took them beyond their 40-hour workweek. Petitioner was paid at level 21 for this work. (Tr. 53, 96, 131, 132, 144, 149, 157, 158, 173).
14. This issue was addressed in the supervisors’ pay package:
"26. QUESTION: Are FLSA exempt Postmasters eligible for ‘additional pay’ when assigned to a route inspection team? ANSWER: FLSA exempt Postmaster was not a position that was converted from nonexempt as a result of the NAPS pay consultations. There was no authorization before for them to receive overtime when assigned to route inspection teams and there is no authorization for them to receive ‘additional pay’ now." (RX 5 (NAPS Pay Consultations Final Decision, April 17, 1996, FLSA Exempt Conversion – Q & As)).
15. An FLSA-exempt postmaster is not required to clock in and out. The payroll system automatically enters 40 hours at eight hours per day for five days of work. However, Petitioner overrode the default entries and entered or caused to be entered for him hours beyond the 40 established for a postmaster position. Thus, he was paid for the Saturdays he worked as a supervisor, for hours beyond eight he worked in a day and for hours beyond 40 he worked in a week. (Tr. 68-71, 79-80, 85; PX 4; RX B).
16. Petitioner’s duty as OIC in Mt. Laurel ended on August 6, 1999. He did not receive higher level pay for week two of pay period 17/99 or thereafter. He also was paid at his base level 16 pay for pay periods 22/98 week 1, 23/98 week 2, 25/98 week 1 and 26/98 week 1. (Tr. 74, 114-115, 123-124; RX B).
17. Well after the conclusion of Petitioner’s OIC service, while investigating a pay issue of another employee at the Mt. Laurel Post Office, the Manager of Post Office Operations discovered that Petitioner had been paid "T" time for hours worked beyond 40 per week. The Manager believed that any pay for such extra hours was improper for one serving in an OIC position. (Tr. 156-157)
18. The Manager had the finance office calculate the amount of overpayment and concluded that Petitioner had been overpaid by a gross amount of about $10,000 (Tr. 68-71; RX 3, 4).
19. Through negotiations with Petitioner and his representative, Respondent agreed to reduce the gross amount of the claimed overpayment by giving Petitioner credit for working 9 Saturdays in other offices while he was the OIC in Willingboro. The Manager refused to give any credit for Saturdays worked in Mt. Laurel when Petitioner was the OIC for Mt. Laurel. (Tr. 125-127, 131, 133-134, 142).
20. On February 23, 2000, Petitioner was issued a Letter of Debt Determination seeking repayment of $8,641.06, which was the gross amount Respondent claimed to have overpaid Petitioner less credit given for the 9 Saturdays Petitioner worked in offices other than Willingboro (RX 2).
21. On November 3, 2000, Petitioner was issued a Notice of Involuntary Administrative Salary Offsets seeking repayment of $8,641.06. The net amount claimed by Petitioner is $7,797.48, the net amount after adjustments were made for regular deductions from pay. (Tr. 107-108, 118-121; PX 6; RX 1).
DECISION
Respondent argues that as an FLSA-exempt OIC Petitioner was not entitled to any pay beyond his weekly salary at the EAS 21 level regardless of the number of hours he worked. It urges that it is entitled to recover the amount of the overpayment by offset from Petitioner’s salary. Petitioner argues that he was never advised of any limit on being paid for all hours worked when he was assigned as an OIC, that management knew he was working Saturdays and other extra time and failed to advise him to stop, and that he should be paid for all of the hours he worked.
Respondent has not contradicted Petitioner’s testimony that he worked all of the hours that were entered into the payroll system. Therefore, the issue to be decided is whether Petitioner is entitled to be paid for those hours he worked beyond 40 per week.
First, for hours beyond eight in a day or 40 per week that he worked in the office to which he was assigned as OIC, other than Saturdays, Petitioner is not entitled to additional pay. Acting as an FLSA-exempt postmaster entitled him to the higher level salary, but he was not entitled to additional pay for managing the office as the OIC, even if it took him beyond his normal hours (Finding 7).
Additionally, he was not entitled to additional compensation for duties as a route inspector even if it caused him to work more than 40 hours in a week or eight hours in a day. He received higher level pay for those duties, and route inspections were among his responsibilities as a postmaster in the South Jersey District. (Findings 7, 13, 14).
This leaves the issue of the Saturdays where he worked as a supervisor, EAS 16, performing exactly the same duties that he had before he received the OIC assignment. FLSA-exempt managers are expected to put in the hours necessary to manage their offices, and they are not paid extra if it takes more than 40 hours per week. This explains why Petitioner may not be paid for extra hours he may have expended at Willingboro managing that office. However, during his assignment to Willingboro, his Saturday work at Mt. Laurel at the request of the Mt. Laurel Postmaster was plainly separate from and unrelated to any duties he performed as the Willingboro OIC. He was unaware that the Manager of Post Office Operations considered him not entitled to additional time pay, and Respondent’s officials never explained to Petitioner any limitations that would preclude Petitioner from being paid for this work on his day off (Findings 8, 11). Under these circumstances, there is no reason why he should not be paid at the level 16 rate (as he entered in the payroll system (Finding 15)) for the supervisor work he performed at Mt. Laurel on his non-scheduled days at Willingboro at the postmaster’s request. Accordingly, Respondent may not recover the alleged overpayments for the 22 Saturdays Petitioner worked in other offices while he was the OIC in Willingboro (Finding 10).2
The Saturdays he worked in Mt. Laurel when he was the OIC in Mt. Laurel are on a different footing. Although the work was performed on his regular day off, he has not shown a clear separation of EAS 16 supervisor duties performed on Saturday from Petitioner’s OIC duties that also may have been performed on Saturday. Accordingly, Petitioner is not entitled to credit for the 9 Saturdays he worked in Mt. Laurel while he was the Mt. Laurel OIC (Finding 12).
Respondent made adjustments in its calculation of the alleged overpayment for some weeks where Petitioner did not receive the higher level pay (Finding 16). For those weeks, Petitioner was entitled either to be paid at the higher level 21 or to be paid for all hours worked (including "T" time) at the level 16. These are week two of pay period 17/99, pay period 22/98 week 1, 23/98 week 2, 25/98 week 1 and 26/98 week 1 (Finding 16). This must be taken into account in Respondent’s calculation of its recovery.
This matter is remanded to the parties for recalculation of the amount of overpayment consistent with the findings above. The amount to be recovered by Respondent is to be net of deductions. The Saturdays Petitioner is entitled to be paid for (22, as discussed above) will be reduced to the extent they are the same Saturdays Respondent already gave Petitioner credit for (Findings 10, 19). The parties are to confer and, if possible, agree on the amount of the overpayment as found according to this Decision. As modified by this decision, Respondent may collect by deduction from Petitioner’s salary the agreed-upon amount of the erroneous payments.
The Petition is sustained in part and denied in part.
Norman D. Menegat Administrative Judge
2 There is no explanation why Petitioner was paid at level 18 for two of the Saturdays while he was at Willingboro (Finding 10). Therefore, Petitioner has not demonstrated entitlement to be paid "T" time for those Saturdays.