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Double Time for Overtime Work

B-180010.07 Nov 07, 1980
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Highlights

An authorized certifying officer requested a decision as to whether two employees might receive overtime compensation at double time rates. The employees were hourly foremen who directly supervised power plant workers whose hourly pay rates were determined by collective bargaining. The collective bargaining agreement provided that nonsupervisory workers should receive double time compensation for overtime work; but, as the foremen were supervisory personnel, they were excluded from the bargaining unit. Their pay was established at a percent of the negotiated journeyman base rate. For 20 years, the foremen had been paid double time for overtime work since their wages were a percentage of the compensation of the workers they supervised. The agency denied them double time on the basis of a GAO decision which limited overtime compensation to time and a half. Congressional legislation has subsequently overruled this decision. The foremen were not specifically covered by the law since they did not negotiate their wages, but for a long time their wages had been based on rates established by employees who did negotiate their wages. GAO held that the payment of double time for overtime to the foremen was proper, and that the employees were entitled to double time compensation for overtime work and corrective payments for the period when double time was discontinued.

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