Opinion ID: 212189
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statute of Limitations Applicable to FLSA Claims

Text: 3 The FLSA provides overtime compensation to certain employees who work more than forty hours per week at a rate not less than one-and-one-half times the employees' regular rate of compensation. This statute originally did not cover federal employees. In 1974, however, Congress extended it to federal employees, but exempted those classified as executive, administrative, or professional. Id. § 213(a)(1). 4 To recover unpaid overtime compensation under the FLSA, a federal employee may file either an action at law or a claim before the General Accounting Office (GAO). Actions at law brought under the FLSA are subject to the statute of limitations provided in the Portal-to-Portal Pay Act, codified at 29 U.S.C. §§ 251-262, which provides for a two-year limitations period for cases in which the FLSA violation is non-willful and a three-year period where the violation is willful. Id. § 255(a). 5 The statute of limitations for administrative claims before the GAO initially was selected, then revised by, the Comptroller General of the United States and twice altered by Congress. The numerous changes in the statute of limitations for claims before the GAO, in part, create the backdrop of the instant takings claim. Therefore, it is important to have a general understanding of the evolution of the limitations periods involved. 6 In 1978, the Comptroller General ruled that the statute of limitations for FLSA claims before the GAO was not the statutory period specific to FLSA claims, but was six years as set forth in the more generally applicable Barring Act, codified at 31 U.S.C. § 3702(b). In re Transp. Sys. Ctr., 57 Comp. Gen. 441 (1978). Sixteen years later, on May 24, 1994, the Comptroller General effectively changed the statute of limitations for FLSA claims before the GAO from six years to two years for non-willful violations and three years for willful violations, essentially recognizing as applicable the limitations period specifically set for FLSA claims in the Portal-to-Portal Pay Act. In re Ford, 73 Comp. Gen. 157 (1994). 7 Shortly thereafter, on September 30, 1994, Congress enacted the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations Act of 1995, Pub.L. No. 103-329, 108 Stat. 2383, 2432 (1994). Section 640 of that act mandated that the Comptroller General apply a six-year statute of limitations period to any administrative claim under the FLSA filed prior to June 30, 1994, and a two-year statute of limitations period to any such claim filed after June 30, 1994. 8 On November 19, 1995, Congress enacted the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act of 1996, Pub.L. No. 104-52, 109 Stat. 468, 468-69 (1995), which amended Section 640 to further limit the types of FLSA claims that may be decided by the GAO (amended Section 640). Amended Section 640 precluded, among other changes, application of the six-year statute of limitations originally set forth in Section 640 to employees who had received overtime compensation under another provision of law. Thus, those employees were limited to the two-year statute of limitations period.