Claim for Retroactive Promotion and Backpay

An employee appealed a Claims Division decision which denied his claim for retroactive promotion and backpay. The employee was in a GS-11 position and contended that his agency upgraded his position in 1971 and 1975. Neither of these actions went into effect, and in 1978 a position classifier determined that his duties were properly classified at the GS-11 level. The employee argued that the agency was responsible for completing the appointment at the GS-12 grade and claims to have suffered an unjustified or unwarranted personnel action and is entitled to backpay under the Back Pay Act. Legislation provides that an employee's agency and the Civil Service Commission are primarily responsible for the classification of the employee's position. A Supreme Court decision held that neither the Classification Act nor the Back Pay Act creates a substantive right to backpay for a period of wrongful position classification. In this case, the 1971 and 1975 requests to reclassify the employee's position to GS-12 were approved by his supervisor. However, there is no evidence of approval of the position by anyone in the agency authorized to take final classification action. Since there was no evidence to support the establishment of the GS-12 position, the employee was not entitled to a retroactive promotion and backpay. Accordingly, the Claims Division action was sustained.