Carr v. United States

61 Fed. Cl. 326, 10 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 452, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 176, 2004 WL 1658452
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJuly 16, 2004
DocketNo. 03-1614C
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 61 Fed. Cl. 326 (Carr v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carr v. United States, 61 Fed. Cl. 326, 10 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 452, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 176, 2004 WL 1658452 (uscfc 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

CHRISTINE O.C. MILLER, Judge.

This case is before the court after oral argument on defendant’s dispositive motion. Plaintiffs are current and former Federal Wage System supervisors employed at an Army installation who allege that their employment required them to work in areas where concentrations of asbestos fibers may have exposed them to possible illness or injury. They demand environmental differential pay. In 2000 an arbitrated grievance awarded non-supervisory employees at the same location environmental differential pay. Defendant seeks dismissal on jurisdictional grounds, pursuant to RCFC 12(b)(1), arguing that plaintiffs’ claims are barred by the statute of limitations and asks for judgment that plaintiffs’ amended complaint fails to state a claim, pursuant to RCFC 12(b)(6).

FACTS

One hundred forty-three current and former Federal Wage System (“FWS”) supervisors (“plaintiffs”) are or were full-time employees at the Corpus Christi Army Depot (the “Army Depot”).1 The Army Depot is the Army’s largest helicopter repair, overhaul, and maintenance center for all U.S. military services and many foreign military organizations. Plaintiffs allege that during the course of job performance they were exposed to asbestos or asbestos-containing materials.

This case follows an arbitrated grievance by the non-supervisory FWS employees that led to an award for past and future environmental differential pay (“EDP”) for working under the same conditions as have plaintiffs. Union representatives of the non-supervisory employees had begun filing those grievances during September 1997.

Since 1986 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) standard for workplace airborne exposure has been [328]*328limited to 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter. This standard for the permissible exposure limit (the “PEL”) was established by the Department of Labor pursuant to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 651-678 (2000). The corresponding regulation explains that the “employer shall ensure that no employee is exposed to an airborne concentration of asbestos in excess of 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air as an eight (8)-hour time-weighted average (TWA) as determined by the method prescribed in Appendix A to this section, or by an equivalent method.” 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1001(c).

While plaintiffs and defendant debate its meaning and applicability, Army Regulation (“AR”) 40-5 (Oct. 15, 1990) covers the Army Occupational Health Program. The relevant provision reads, as follows:

c. Army occupational safety and health standards are noted in (1) through (5) below. When alternate or supplemental standards are necessary, documentation with justification will be forwarded through command channels to HQDA ....
(1) DOD and DA OSH standards for military and nonmilitary workplaces for which regulatory agencies either have or have not issued OSH standards. This includes DOD and DA pamphlets, circulars, technical bulletins, and messages.
(2) OSHA standards including emergency temporary standards with minor adaption as necessary to conform with DA administrative practices.
(3) Alternate workplace standards based on publications relating to workplace exposure criteria. These standards may be used in lieu of existing OSHA standards or in which no OSHA standard exists. The current American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists threshold limit values will be the standards used in DA military and civilian workplaces if—
(а) OSHA standards are less stringent.
(б) No OSHA standard exists.
(4) Other regulatory workplace standards issued under statutory authority by other Federal agencies (such as the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)).
(5) Special DA OSH standards developed for military-unique equipment, systems, and operations.

AR 40-5-3(c). The current permissible exposure limit set by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists is the same as the OSHA limit-0.l fiber per cubic centimeter of air (“f/cc”) measured as an 8-hour, time-weighted average.

Plaintiffs had been excluded from the prior grievance activities because they were supervisory employees and therefore ineligible for union representation. Forty of the current plaintiffs on May 21, 2001, filed their own grievance with the Army Depot requesting inclusion in the non-supervisory employee arbitration award. The depot commander denied this claim, in part, because it was not timely filed under the applicable administrative grievance procedures and, in part, because the award to non-supervisory employees did not extend to non-union supervisors, who were not covered as part of the collective bargaining agreements. In his memorandum of July 2, 2001, the commander also cited the Office of Personnel Management’s (the “OPM”) determination that ‘“an agency’s compliance with any applicable standards established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is sufficient to deny a claim for EDP.’ ”

Plaintiffs’ subsequent claim to the OPM filed October 31, 2001, was denied on July 30, 2002. Plaintiffs denote the denial as a “final administrative settlement of the claim,” Am. Compl. filed Oct. 6, 2003, ¶ 12, but complain that they have not had a “fully adjudicated administrative review of the merits of their claim.” Pls.’ Resp. to Def.’s Proposed Findings of Uncontroverted Fact, ¶ 22, filed Feb. 18, 2004.

Plaintiffs allege that asbestos is present throughout the Army Depot facility and that they were exposed to excessive levels of asbestos, such that a “February 29, 1999 dust sampling ... revealed extraordinarily high asbestos dust levels in buildings 8, 49, 339, and 259.” Am. Compl. ¶¶ 14-16. The “average indoor asbestos fiber measurement in those areas was almost 47-times higher than the measurement of outdoor, or ambient, air; which means, of course, that the readings in [329]*329some indoor areas were more than 47-times higher than ambient air.” Id. ¶ 17. Plaintiffs initially had disagreed with defendant’s statement that no evidence indicated that the average airborne asbestos concentration levels ever reached or exceeded 0.1 f/cc of air based upon an 8-hour time-weighted average, citing the expert testimony by Dr. Jonas Kalnas, a witness for the grievants at the arbitration hearing. During oral argument, however, plaintiffs conceded that no evidence indicates that any consistent tests have demonstrated that OSHA standards have been exceeded.

Plaintiffs base their claim for recovery of 8% of their hourly wages for their exposure or potential exposure to asbestos-containing materials on the Prevailing Rate Systems Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 5341-5849 (2000), which recently was amended. The pertinent provision formerly provided for the payment of “proper differentials, as determined by the Office, for duty involving unusually severe working conditions or unusually severe hazards.” 5 U.S.C.

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Bluebook (online)
61 Fed. Cl. 326, 10 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 452, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 176, 2004 WL 1658452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carr-v-united-states-uscfc-2004.