Federal Air Marshals(Fam) Fam 1 v. United States

84 Fed. Cl. 585, 14 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 442, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 359, 2008 WL 4997346
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedNovember 5, 2008
DocketNo. 06-233C
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 84 Fed. Cl. 585 (Federal Air Marshals(Fam) Fam 1 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
Federal Air Marshals(Fam) Fam 1 v. United States, 84 Fed. Cl. 585, 14 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 442, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 359, 2008 WL 4997346 (uscfc 2008).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

FUTEY, Judge.

This Fair Labor Standards Act class action is before the Court on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment on the issue of liability. Plaintiffs, who are Federal Air Marshals (“FAM”), allege that defendant failed to pay them overtime compensation for hours they worked in excess of forty hours per week, in violation of section 207(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219 (2008). Plaintiffs’ motion is brought on behalf of the 1,805 FAMs who have filed consents in this case, and is based upon evidence related to the claims of seven “test plaintiffs” designated by the parties for the purpose of determining liability. In support of their claims, plaintiffs assert that the FLSA applies to plaintiffs and that it requires an employer to pay an employee at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he or she is employed for all hours the employee works in excess of forty hours in a workweek. Furthermore, plaintiffs aver that each of the test plaintiffs worked more than forty hours in at least one week during the two-year limitations period prior to filing his or her consent but was not paid overtime compensation for that week.

Defendant, on the other hand, contends that 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1) does not apply to plaintiffs, and asserts several bases in support of its contention: first, the plain meaning of 49 U.S.C. § 40122(g)(1) is that all Transportation Security Administration [587]*587(“TSA”) employee compensation is governed by a personnel management system, not the FLSA, and plaintiffs’ claims are therefore inconsistent with § 40122; second, Congress intended for FAMs receiving availability pay to be subject to earnings constraints imposed on criminal investigators—including exemption from FLSA overtime compensation; and finally, 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1) does not apply because plaintiffs are “in law enforcement activities” to whom a seven-day work period applies under § 207(k). In addition, defendant maintains that the Availability Pay received by FAMs is compensation for overtime work, that plaintiffs fail to establish they are entitled to compensation for unrecorded or off-duty hours because they have not demonstrated that any specific activity for which they seek compensation is not de minimus, and that plaintiffs’ off-duty physical fitness and firearms training does not constitute compensable overtime work pursuant to the FLSA.

Currently before the Court are Plaintiffs’ Motion For Partial Summary Judgment; Plaintiffs’ Proposed Findings Of Uneontro-verted Fact; Defendant’s Cross-Motion For Summary Judgment, And Opposition To Plaintiffs’ Motion For Partial Summary Judgment; Defendant’s Proposed Findings Of Uncontroverted Fact; Defendant’s Response To Plaintiffs’ Proposed Findings Of Uncontroverted Fact; Plaintiffs’ Combined Reply In Support Of Motion For Partial Summary Judgment And Response In Opposition To Defendant’s Cross-Motion For Summary Judgment; Plaintiffs’ Response To Defendant’s Proposed Findings Of Uncontro-verted Fact; Defendant’s Reply To Plaintiffs’ Response To Defendant’s Cross-Motion For Summary Judgment; Plaintiffs’ Supplement In Support Of Their Motion For Partial Summary Judgment And In Opposition To Defendant’s Cross-Motion For Summary Judgment; and Defendant’s Response To Plaintiffs’ Supplement In Support Of Their Motion For Partial Summary Judgment And In Opposition To Defendant’s Cross-Motion For Summary Judgment.

1. Background

Plaintiff FAMs are the primary operational employees of the FAM Service, which functions under the direction of the TSA. The FAM Service was transferred to the TSA from the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (“ATSA”) in 2001. For purposes of the occupational series definitions utilized by the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”), FAMs are classified as law enforcement officers in the 1801 series (“General Inspection, Investigation and Compliance”). The main responsibility of the FAM Service is to execute flight missions, meaning that FAMs travel on commercial aircraft and seek to detect and neutralize security threats. They are authorized to carry firearms and make arrests on passenger flights. Mandatory handgun qualifications are administered quarterly, and FAMs are required to demonstrate safe and proper handling of their weapon and to achieve a passing score on the Practical Pistol Course; however, off-duty firearms training is not an employment requirement. Similarly, FAMs are subjected to quarterly physical examinations, assessments, an on-site training routine, and an individualized fitness program, but off-duty physical fitness training is not an employment requirement. FAMs have a basic workweek of forty hours that does not extend over more than six of any consecutive seven days, and an administrative workweek of any period of seven consecutive twenty-four hour periods designated in advance.

Prior to the FAM Service’s transfer to the TSA, FAMs had been subject to the FAA personnel management system, implemented pursuant to the 1996 Department of Transportation Appropriations Act, 49 U.S.C. § 40122. In 2002, the TSA implemented its current pay policy for FAMs pursuant to the same authority. Under the current personnel management system, FAMs are classified as “exempt” for FLSA purposes and are not paid FLSA overtime compensation. Nonetheless, each FAM who averages two additional hours of work on regular workdays on an annual basis receives a twenty-five percent enhancement to his or her base salary (“Availability Pay”). Availability Pay was established by the FAA in 2001. The FAM Service Director certifies each FAM’s eligibility for Availability Pay annually. The [588]*588FAM Availability Pay is included as part of a FAM’s basic pay for purposes of retirement benefits, and is subject to the “restrictions and earning limitations imposed on criminal investigators under 5545a.” 5 U.S.C. § 8331(3)(E)(ii) (2008).

Plaintiffs filed a complaint with this Court on March 27, 2006, seeking back pay and other relief for violations of the FLSA. On June 23, 2006, defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, asserting that the FLSA does not apply to FAMs because the Federal Aviation Administration Revitalization Act of 1995 (“FAARA”), 49 U.S.C. § 40122(g) (2008), exempts plaintiffs’ original employer, the FAA, from the FLSA. This Court denied defendant’s motion, finding that the FLSA does indeed apply to plaintiffs because the FLSA is not a “Federal personnel law” from which the FAA is exempted under FAARA. On November 13, 2007, the ease was certified as an opt-in collective action. The case was bifurcated in order to consider separately the issues of liability and damages; only the issue of liability is currently before the Court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 Fed. Cl. 585, 14 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 442, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 359, 2008 WL 4997346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federal-air-marshalsfam-fam-1-v-united-states-uscfc-2008.