Message from Dionne R. Mason, President, AFGE Local 2883

Dear AFGE Local 2883 Bargaining Unit Employees, Past and Present,

As you may be aware, your Union had been pursuing a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)/Overtime Grievance against the Agency for many years. That Grievance alleged, amongst other counts, that many of you and fellow past employees were improperly denied FLSA coverage and that many of you and fellow past employees were not being properly compensated for all overtime work performed.

Through the hard work of your Union and its attorneys at Snider & Associates, we were recently able to settle the matter for a substantial sum – $11,000,000. Yes, that’s right, eleven million dollars. And the bulk of those funds are attributable to employee compensation and will ultimately be distributed to past and current eligible and entitled employees by the Class Action Implementation Group (CAIG).

As the Union was also successful in getting the Agency to agree to provide many you with FLSA coverage as another part of the Settlement, some employees have already begun receiving notices from the Agency that their FLSA coverage is being corrected from E (Exempt and not covered) to N (Nonexempt and covered). Being covered by the FLSA is a good thing as it provides you with better entitlements to overtime compensation when you work more than your scheduled hours. While not all positions and employees are entitled under the law to be covered by the FLSA; your Union fought hard to get this coverage for as many of you as possible.

I recognize that there are and will be questions concerning eligibility, entitlement, participation and payments. These questions cannot be answered until all of the information necessary to determine eligibility and to ensure a proper division of the funds is provided by the Agency and fully processed by Snider & Associates and CAIG. As with other settlements of this nature, this phase takes many months, at a minimum, to complete. The Settlement Agreement affords the CDC a reasonable amount of time to gather and produce significant components of that information, and it will thereafter take time to process that data and integrate it with all of the information already on hand.

More information concerning the settlement, implementation and distribution will be issued by the distribution company, CAIG, once the formal implementation process begins. At that time, an announcement will be made and eligible individuals will be contacted directly by CAIG.

In the meantime, updates concerning the settlement, implementation and distribution, will be posted on this site. While we expect to be able to provide periodic updates, until the formal implementation process begins, no detailed information will be released. This includes the names of those eligible/entitled and the amounts to be paid. Keep in mind that because all of the data necessary to determine eligibility and payment amounts has not yet been received and processed, the answers to all of these questions are not yet known.

Finally, please also note that neither the Union nor Snider & Associates is collecting information from employees for claims at this time. Please do not contact the Union or Snider & Associates with questions or attempt to provide claims information at this time as it will not be accepted. To ensure you receive updated information from CAIG when it goes out, you are encouraged to register at the CAIG secure portal.