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ESA News Release: [02/27/2006]
Contact Name: Dolline Hatchett
Phone Number: (202) 693-4651
Release Number: 06-0266-NAT
Department of Labor and U.S. Postal Service
Reach $6.5 Million Back Wage Agreement
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor has announced an agreement with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that will result in payment of more than $6.5 million in back wages to almost 900 pilots, co-pilots and flight engineers. The employees worked on several USPS contracts and subcontracts to transport mail by air between January 1996 and August 2001. Wages paid were subject to requirements of the Service Contract Act (SCA).
“In keeping with this Administration’s commitment to ensuring that workers receive all the wages they have earned, the department has finally reached an agreement settling a decade-old dispute involving employees of Postal Service contractors,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. “Back wages of $6.5 million will now be paid to the nearly 900 affected workers.”
The USPS and other parties — contractors, the Air Force and the Air Line Pilots Association — challenged before the Labor Department’s Administrative Review Board a change in the method used by the Wage and Hour Division to determine new, higher prevailing wage rates for flight crew employees. USPS did not incorporate the higher rates for pilots, co-pilots and flight engineers into their contracts and brought the matter to the Review Board. The Board vacated Wage and Hour’s method of computing the new rates and remanded the matter for issuance of a new wage determination.
This settlement resolves issues raised over 10 years ago by the challenge before the Administrative Review Board. The USPS contractors and subcontractors affected by this settlement are Ryan International Airlines, Express One International Inc. and Evergreen International Airlines Inc. Under the agreement, USPS will directly contact and make back wage payments to the employees who worked on the contracts and subcontracts.
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