Opinion ID: 2086786
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The 1987 Amendment to the FBPA, OEA's Position, and the Trial Court's Decision

Text: In 1987, Congress amended the FBPA to provide interest on back pay awards. 5 U.S.C. § 5596(b)(2)(A). The amendment, part of the Congress' continuing appropriations for Fiscal Year 1988, Public Law 100-202, December 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 1329, was contained in § 623 of the appropriations act. Section 623(a)(2), in pertinent part, added subsection (2)(a) to 5 U.S.C. § 5596(b) and stated simply: An amount payable under paragraph (1)(A)(1) of this subsection shall be payable with interest. Section 623(b) set forth the effective date in two subsections. Subsection (b)(1) provided: (1) GenerallyExcept as provided in paragraph (2), the amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act, and shall apply with respect to any employee found, in a final judgment entered or a final decision otherwise rendered on or after such date, to have been the subject of an unjustified or unwarranted personnel action, the correction of which entitles such employee to an amount under section 5596(b)(1)(A)(i) of title 5, United States Code. Subsection (b)(2)(A) specified an exception for cases in which a right to interest was specifically reserved, contingent on the enactment of a statute authorizing the payment of interest on claims brought under such section 5596, where final judgment or decision occurred before the effective date of the 1987 amendment. [9] We have previously stated that the District must provide its pre-1980 employees, like Mr. Brown, with concrete entitlements at least equal to . . . previously applicable. . . entitlements available to them when they were part of the federal system. AFGE, supra, 459 A.2d at 1049. We have said nothing, however, about the applicability to pre-1980 employees, or those hired after 1980, of amendments to the FBPA adopted after 1980. In its June 1995 order denying the District's motion for reconsideration, the trial court acknowledged that: There is merit in the contention that since the [FBPA] in 1979 did not provide interest on back pay, the District matched that level of protection and, therefore the CMPA has superseded. . . [the interest] provision of the [FBPA]. Nonetheless, the trial court concluded that it had to award interest on back pay because our decision in Zenian, supra, stated that the FBPA could not be applied in a piecemeal fashion. 598 A.2d at 1165 (citing Hunt I, supra, 520 A.2d at 303-04). OEA and the trial court have reached different conclusions as to the applicability to pre-1980 District employees of the 1987 FBPA provision pertaining to interest on back pay. The Board of OEA concluded in Galbreith v. D.C. Public Schools, OEA Dkt No. 2401-0290-81 (1989) that: [T]he Home Rule Act only protects personnel benefits Employee had on March 2, 1979. Since the Back Pay Act did not provide for interest against the government on March 2, 1979, the District government is not required to provide such a benefit pursuant to the Home Rule Act. Id. at 2. Thus, [s]ince interest is not a personnel benefit which is protected by the Home Rule Act, . . . the CMPA supercedes the Back Pay Act's provision allowing for interest on back pay. Id. at 3. In contrast, in its June 21, 1995 order, the trial court stated that: the plain language of the Home Rule Act expresses the intent of Congress that amendments to the Federal Back Pay Act shall apply to pre-1980 employees of the District of Columbia. Therefore, Mr. Brown is entitled to interest on his back pay award.