Opinion ID: 6827248
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: General Statement

Text: Federal employees engaged in fire protection activities or law enforcement activities are entitled to compensation for overtime work under title 5, United States Code, or under the special overtime provision of section 7(k) of the FLSA; whichever provides them the greater overtime benefit____ FPM Ltr. 551-5, Attachment 3(A)(1). (Emphasis in original.) Plaintiffs contend that this instruction is inconsistent with their statutory entitlements. Specifically, they contend that the relevant comparison should not be between all FLSA overtime and Title 5 overtime, but between unscheduled FLSA overtime and Title 5 overtime. The latter comparison would, perforce, be limited to precisely the same particular hours, whereas the approach directed by the FPM Letter contrasts all Title 5 overtime compensation (merely unscheduled hours), with all FLSA overtime (which consists of all hours in excess of 106). Plaintiffs’ approach would require agencies to maintain the Title 5 distinction between scheduled and unscheduled overtime throughout both the Title 29 calculation and the comparison between the two figures. Plaintiffs’ approach thus focuses on particular hours; defendant’s approach focuses on a single category of pay—overtime—as determined by the respective statutes. The fundamental question thus presented is whether defendant must calculate and compare scheduled overtime under Title 5 with the equivalent number of hours under Title 29, and then separately make the same comparison between unscheduled Title 5 overtime hours and the equivalent Title 29 hours. To state the issue somewhat differently, the question is whether, at the end of their regular 144-hour shift, plaintiffs have a vested right to a separate calculation for 38 hours of FLSA overtime, or whether all their hours can be considered collectively at the end of their two week pay period. Plaintiffs’ primary argument is that defendant’s methodology deprives them alternatively of the statutory benefit created by 5 U.S.C. § 5542(a)(1) or 29 U.S.C. § 207(k). The court disagrees. As the Court of Claims suggested in Fix v. United States, 177 Ct.Cl. 369, 368 F.2d 609 (1966), the question becomes whether the FPM Letter “clearly contradicted the terms or purpose of the statute,” id. at 377, 368 F.2d at 614, insofar as it addressed the comparison of overtime pay under the two statutes. Section 5542(a)(1), when read in conjunction with section 5545(c)(1), only creates an entitlement with respect to unscheduled overtime hours. As to those hours, plaintiffs are guaranteed to receive “one and one-half times the hourly rate of basic pay.” The corresponding FLSA section is 207(k), read in conjunction with section 207(a). Those sections assure plaintiffs that for every hour in excess of 106 per pay period, they are entitled, at a minimum, to one and one-half their regular rate of pay. Plaintiffs’ pay therefore must satisfy two levels of inquiry. The first, with respect to both scheduled and unscheduled hours in excess of 106, is whether they always received, at a minimum, an amount equivalent to the sum of one-half their regular rate of pay for 38 hours, plus one and one-half times their regular rate for the excess? The second inquiry is whether, for all hours in excess of 144, they have received the equivalent of one and one-half times their basic rate of pay? A return to plaintiffs’ examples demonstrates that, from the point of the controlling statutes, plaintiffs have been properly paid. In the first example, Contreras worked a total of 71 hours of FLSA overtime. For Title 5 purposes, this is 38 hours of scheduled and 33 hours of unscheduled overtime. In this circumstance, Contreras has been receiving Title 5 pay for the 38 hours, since it exceeds payment under Title 29. Plaintiffs contend that this practice “supplants” his right under Title 29 to receive compensation for the first 38 hours of FLSA overtime. “The practical effect is thus an implied repeal of the Title 5 provisions.” Brief of April 27,1990 p. 25. Consideration of what the two statutes guarantee Contreras demonstrates that this is incorrect. Contreras is entitled to a minimum of $413.74 for those 71 hours under section 207(k), and no more. Title 5, on the other hand, speaks, insofar as relevant here, only to the 33 hours of unscheduled overtime. As to those hours, plaintiffs are entitled to a minimum of $430.32. By paying the latter amount, defendant independently satisfied both statutory provisions. In the second example, Contreras worked 60 hours of FLSA overtime. He receives pay under the FLSA, because 60 hours calculated pursuant to that statute exceed Title 5 overtime pay for 22 unscheduled hours. By paying the larger amount, the FLSA calculation, defendant also satisfies the Title 5 minimum. Plaintiffs’ error is reflected in their frequent use of the contention that after defendant’s calculation, they “no longer receive” their Title 5 pay. This characterization incorrectly assumes that, at the conclusion of a regular 144-hour shift, whatever pay plaintiffs would have received is permanently fixed without regard to whether they worked additional unscheduled overtime. What plaintiffs overlook is that while defendant's pay scheme must satisfy both statutory requirements, the inquiries are nonetheless independent. 8 Plaintiffs are mixing the statutes by incorporating Title 5 distinctions into Title 29 calculations prior to determination of the separate entitlements. Plaintiffs are in effect suggesting that, through a sort of gestalt process, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Such a result is not required by the statutes. By emphasizing that the comparison is between “overtime ” calculations, the FPM Letter has taken a reasonable approach to interpreting the two statutes. The letter has been in existence since 1975, virtually contemporaneously with the adoption of the 1974 Amendments. As plaintiffs concede, it is well settled that courts should show “great deference to the interpretation given the statute by the officers or agency charged with its administration.” Udall v. Tallman, 380 U.S. 1, 16, 85 S.Ct. 792, 801, 13 L.Ed.2d 616 (1965). Nor is it necessary that the agency’s “construction is the only reasonable one or even that it is the result we would have reached had the question arisen in the first instance in judicial proceedings.” Id. (quoting Unemployment Compensation Comm’n v. Aragan, 329 U.S. 143, 153, 67 S.Ct. 245, 250, 91 L.Ed. 136 (1946)). See also Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Comm’n, 395 U.S. 367, 381, 89 S.Ct. 1794, 1801, 23 L.Ed.2d 371 (1969). The Federal Circuit has also admonished that “the longstanding interpretation placed on a statute by the agency charged with its administration should be followed unless there are compelling reasons that it is wrong.” Money v. OPM, 811 F.2d 1474, 1477 (Fed. Cir.1987); see also Young v. Community Nutrition Inst., 476 U.S. 974, 980-81, 106 S.Ct. 2360, 2364-65, 90 L.Ed.2d 959 (1986); Horner v. Andrzjewski, 811 F.2d 571, 574 (Fed.Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 912, 108 S.Ct. 257, 98 L.Ed.2d 215 (1987); De-Costa v. United States, 22 Cl.Ct. 165 (Cl.Ct.1990). Defendant’s methodology is not at odds with Walling v. A.H. Belo Corp., 316 U.S. 624, 62 S.Ct. 1223, 86 L.Ed. 1716 (1942). Plaintiffs rely on that decision for the proposition that they are entitled to FLSA overtime for each hour of work beyond the statutory maximum at a rate “not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.” Id. at 631, 62 S.Ct. at 1227. From this plaintiffs conclude that each hour of overtime is a separate unit, which can be contrasted to Title 5 compensation for the identical hour regardless of the total amount of overtime worked. Walling does not stand for that proposition, however, and the language quoted merely confirms what is apparent from the statute. At no time, however, have plaintiffs not received an amount equivalent to one and one-half their regular rate for all FLSA overtime. Defendant’s motion advances a considerably more complex defense of OPM’s interpretation of the two overtime statutes. It suggests that two additional provisions of the FLSA are relevant. The first is section 207(e), which in relevant part provides: As used in this section the “regular rate” at which an employee is employed shall be deemed to include all remuneration for employment paid to, or on behalf of, the employee, but shall not be deemed to include— (5) extra compensation provided by a premium rate paid for certain hours worked by the employee in any day or workweek because such hours are hours worked in excess of ... the employee’s normal working hours or regular working hours The latter subsection would embrace overtime paid pursuant to section 5542(a)(1) 9 . Indeed the Title 5 provision specifically refers to the compensation it authorizes as “premium” pay. Defendant then points to section 207(h), which states that “[e]xtra compensation paid as described in paragraph ] (5) ... of this section shall be creditable toward overtime compensation payable pursuant to this section.” From these two provisions, defendant concludes that in those circumstances in which a comparison of Title 5 overtime to FLSA overtime results in payment exclusively under Title 5, and not under Title 29, section 207(h) credits those Title 5 payments as if they were made under Title 29. It is not entirely clear to the court what infirmity would exist in defendant’s practice absent this crediting provision. As discussed above, the real inquiry is whether the pay scheme independently satisfies the two separate entitlement calculations. It does. In that respect section 207(h) is not, in the court’s view, necessary to the defendant’s position. With respect to any potential infirmity under the FLSA, however, section 207(h) does make it clear that when pay is received under a Title 5 premium pay provision, such as section 5542(a)(1), it is credited toward FLSA entitlement. Plaintiffs’ response to defendant’s reliance on section 207(h) is that payments under Title 5 can only be credited, for FLSA purposes, with respect to the precise hours used to calculate the Title 5 premium. This response, like defendant’s argument in the first instance, begs the question of whether the underlying overtime pay provisions have to be converted to the same “currency” before they can be compared. As discussed above, the court is of the view that they do not. The FPM Letter’s interpretation is reasonable—the defendant is permitted to independently assess what the pay would be under section 207(k) and compare that with what pay would be under section 5542(a). The basis of comparison is pay methodologies expressed in terms of money, not hours. 10 As the court intimated at the outset, the parties are grappling with the flotsam of incomplete legislation. Titles 5 and Title 29 do not mesh with the machined precision of the gears in a Swiss watch. It is too much to ask that they give a perfectly synchronous performance. A best effort at implementing the spirit of both statutes, while giving employees the benefit of whichever is greater, inevitably creates a crazy quilt. Although the court cannot hope to discern, much less impose, complete coherence, it can ensure that OPM has put together the various pieces of pay entitlement in a way that eliminates gaps and minimizes overlaps. This it has done, and the court cannot conclude that OPM has violated either statute.