Fed. Gov’t Incorrectly Calculated Army and Air Force Exchange Service Employees’ Premium Pay ‘For Years,’ Lawsuit Claims

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A proposed class action alleges Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) employees are owed unpaid premium wages, including Sunday, holiday, shift differential, and night shift pay, as a result of “systemic problems” with the United States Government’s payroll system.

The 26-page lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, says the payment of premium wages is mandated by law in that eligible employees must be paid additional compensation for hours worked on certain days of the week, such as Sundays or holidays, and for hours worked and/or hours absent on leave assigned for night shifts. 

Although the government has, in fact, often paid premium pay to proposed class members, who are/were federal workers within the Department of Defense, the wages were calculated incorrectly due to systemic payroll issues, the complaint claims. 

“For years, the Government has been incorrectly calculating and paying Premium Pay to eligible employees such as Plaintiff,” the suit alleges. “As a result, affected employees have not received the full amount of Premium Pay to which they are entitled under federal statute and/or regulations.” 

While holiday pay is owed to an AAFES employee for each hour worked on a holiday shift, some overnight holiday shifts can span the course of two calendar days, one of which is a holiday and the other is not a holiday, the suit says. In such an instance, the entire shift beginning on the holiday is treated as the holiday for the purposes of pay and leave, the lawsuit argues:

“For example, an employee whose shift starts at 8:30 p.m. on a Thursday of a Thanksgiving holiday and who continues to work until 7:00 a.m. the following Friday morning, which is not a holiday, is nonetheless entitled to Holiday Premium for all hours worked in that two-calendar day shift that commenced on the Thanksgiving holiday.” 

The lawsuit alleges, however, that the federal government, on numerous occasions throughout the years, has failed to correctly tally holiday pay for shifts spanning two calendar days. With regard to the plaintiff, the suit says the man began work on Thanksgiving 2018 at 8:29 p.m. and ended his shift at 5:00 a.m. the following day yet was paid only 3.5 hours of holiday premium pay and 4.5 hours of regular pay despite working eight hours of the 10-hour holiday shift. 

The plaintiff claims Christmas Day 2018, New Year’s Day 2019, Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2019 and Christmas Day 2019 went similarly in that he received less than half of the premium holiday pay he was owed for those shifts.

The suit makes similar allegations with regard to Sunday premium pay, alleging employees were deprived of rightful wages when hours worked on a Sunday shift span the course of two calendar days, one of which is not a Sunday. Moreover, the case alleges the government failed to remit proper Sunday premium wages for employees who had two separate shifts with Sunday hours on the same Sunday. More from the case: 

“For example, an employee whose shift starts at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday and who continues to work until 7:00 a.m. the following Monday morning is entitled to Sunday Premium Pay for all hours worked in that two calendar day shift, part of which included some Sunday hours. Similarly, an employee whose shift starts at 8:30 p.m. on a Saturday and who continues to work until 7:00 a.m. the following Sunday morning is also entitled to Sunday Premium Pay for all hours worked in that two calendar day shift, part of which included some Sunday hours.”

Lastly, the suit alleges the government incorrectly calculated night shift differential premium pay for regularly scheduled, non-overtime work for which the majority of hours occurred during a night shift, i.e. between 3:00 p.m. and midnight or between 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. The case adds that the government’s allegedly incorrect premium pay calculations also applied to those temporarily assigned to different tours of duty and/or were absent on leave with pay, on holiday or in travel status.

The plaintiff claims he was paid incorrectly calculated premium pay for numerous instances in which he was temporarily assigned to work the day shift. Whereas the man should have been paid a number of hours’ worth of night shift differential premium pay at a second- or third-shift rate, the suit says the plaintiff received pay for only some hours at a first-shift rate.

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