Aamodt v. United States

22 Cl. Ct. 716, 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 476, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 110, 1991 WL 47003
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedApril 5, 1991
DocketNo. 623-89C
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 22 Cl. Ct. 716 (Aamodt v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aamodt v. United States, 22 Cl. Ct. 716, 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 476, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 110, 1991 WL 47003 (cc 1991).

Opinion

OPINION

BRUGGINK, Judge.

This action involves overtime pay claims brought pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219 (1988). Plaintiffs are past or present GS-1811 special agents with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”). On January 18, 1991, this court considered its jurisdiction to entertain the plaintiffs' claims in light of the holding in Carter v. Gibbs, 909 F.2d 1452, 1458 (Fed.Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 46, 112 L.Ed.2d 22 (1990).1 The court divided the plaintiffs’ claims into three categories: 1) plaintiffs presently in a bargaining unit covered by a 1976 collective bargaining agreement between INS and the National Border Patrol Council (“NBPC”), 2) plaintiffs presently in a bargaining unit covered by a 1990 agreement between INS and the National Immigration and National Naturalization Service Council (“NINSC”), and 3) plaintiffs who were formerly either bargaining unit members covered by the NBPC agreement or bargaining unit members covered by the NINSC agreement.

Applying Carter, the court held that it had jurisdiction as to the claims of the NBPC plaintiffs but lacked jurisdiction as to the claims of the NINSC plaintiffs. The court found that the NBPC agreement specifically excluded FLSA overtime pay disputes, while the NINSC agreement did not. As to the plaintiffs in the third group, plaintiffs who were no longer members of either bargaining unit, the court directed further briefing by the parties, as well as by designated amici who are involved in certain related cases.2 After considering the amicus briefs and the parties’ written and oral arguments, the court concludes that it does not have jurisdiction over the claims of former members of bargaining units for whom a grievance process was available when their claims arose.

DISCUSSION

The issue is whether this court has jurisdiction over the claims of former bargaining unit members whose claims arose while they were employed by INS and while they were bargaining unit members. Relying on the rationale of Carter, the Government contends that jurisdiction is lacking as to claims that arose when the claimants were bargaining unit members since they could have raised those claims in the negotiated grievance process.3 Plaintiffs counter that neither the Civil Service Reform Act (“CSRA”)4 nor the relevant bargaining agreements bar these plaintiffs from seeking relief in this court.

In Carter, the Federal Circuit held that the CSRA made grievance procedures in bargaining agreements the exclusive method for resolving FLSA overtime disputes between parties to those agreements unless the parties specifically provided otherwise. The court concluded that the CSRA’s exclusivity provision precluded plaintiffs from obtaining judicial review of their overtime claims. That provision states that negotiated grievance procedures in a collective bargaining agreement [718]*718“shall be the exclusive procedures for resolving grievances which fall within its coverage.” 5 U.S.C. § 7121(a)(1). As the court observed, Congress through the CSRA “ ‘comprehensively overhauled the civil service system,’ ” 909 F.2d at 1455 (quoting Lindahl v. OPM, 470 U.S. 768, 773, 105 S.Ct. 1620, 1624, 84 L.Ed.2d 674 (1985)), and “narrowly circumscribed the role of the judiciary in its carefully crafted civil service scheme,” id. at 1456.

In its January 18, 1991 order, the court addressed, in light of Carter, the question of whether the court has jurisdiction over the FLSA claims of current bargaining unit members. The court considered the relevant bargaining agreement exclusions and held that there is jurisdiction as to the claims of NBPC plaintiffs who were covered at all relevant times by the 1976 bargaining agreement, but that there is not jurisdiction as to the claims of NINSC plaintiffs who were covered at all relevant times by the 1990 bargaining agreement. The bargaining agreement relevant to the NBPC plaintiffs did exclude FLSA overtime disputes while the bargaining agreement relevant to the NINSC plaintiffs did not.

The court did not address the question of whether the court has jurisdiction over the FLSA claims of former NINSC bargaining unit members.5 It is clear that if these plaintiffs were still employed in their former positions and were bargaining unit members covered by the 1990 agreement, the court would lack jurisdiction under the exclusivity provision of the CSRA and the plain import of Carter. What is not clear is whether a subsequent change in employment status or bargaining unit membership removes the jurisdictional bar.

There is no clear authority on this issue. The court in Carter did not identify any plaintiffs as former members of the union and thus had no occasion to address whether any change in employment status between the time the employees’ claims arose and the filing of their claims would have affected the result there.

The 1990 agreement and the exclusivity provision of the CSRA apply only to “employees.” Plaintiffs contend that since persons who retired, died, transferred or were promoted out of the bargaining unit prior to filing are not employees, they are no longer affected by the 1990 bargaining agreement or the CSRA.6 In making their argument plaintiffs assume that the time of filing their complaint is controlling in determining whether plaintiffs are “employees.” 7 That assumption begs the question at issue, however.8

[719]*719Defendant points to Hess v. Internal Revenue Serv., 892 F.2d 1019, 1020 (Fed.Cir.1989), in support of its argument that the proper focus of this court’s jurisdictional inquiry is the time the claim arose and that subsequent events should not affect that determination. In Hess, the Federal Circuit held that the arbitrability of an employee’s claim, in an adverse action context, is determined by the employee’s employment and bargaining unit status at the time the adverse action is taken by the agency, and not his status at the time the underlying conduct occurred.

At the time the conduct charged occurred, the plaintiff in Hess was a supervisor and excluded from the bargaining unit. Id. at 1020. Hess was later demoted from his supervisory position and returned to the bargaining unit. After his demotion, Hess was dismissed for conduct which occurred while he was a supervisor but which was not related to the demotion. Hess elected to grieve his dismissal through arbitration, as provided for in the I.R.S. bargaining agreement. The I.R.S. opposed Hess’ right to arbitrate on the grounds that the misconduct occurred while he was a supervisor. Rejecting the Government’s position, the court determined that the bargaining agreement remedies were available to Hess because he was a member of the bargaining unit on the date of the Government’s adverse action, the dismissal.

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22 Cl. Ct. 716, 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 476, 1991 U.S. Claims LEXIS 110, 1991 WL 47003, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aamodt-v-united-states-cc-1991.