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Office of the General Counsel
OPM Ref.: S9601460
This replies to your March 25, 1997 letter requesting reconsideration of our March 19, 1997 settlement, which dismissed your claim for overtime on the grounds that a settlement agreement that you entered into with your employing agency precluded any further proceedings on that claim. We have carefully reviewed the file, including the additional arguments you raised in your March 25 correspondence, and we affirm the settlement.
In the settlement agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers that you signed on January 25, 1995, you agreed "not to institute any further proceedings or litigation" with respect to your September 2, 1994 Memorandum, "Request for Relief from Reprisal". In that memorandum, you complained that your supervisor "[a]ssigned too many concurrent special initiatives with artificially short deadlines" and established a practice of "overassigning work". Because your claim is for overtime that was induced and you allege that were coerced into working the extra hours, these alleged actions by your supervisor are at the heart of your complaint for overtime. We would not be able to adjudicate your claim without having your agency respond to these charges, which is exactly what you agreed not to do in the settlement agreement.
Therefore, we affirm the settlement.
Very truly yours,
Paul Britner
Senior Attorney