[Question Concerning Entitlement to Overtime Pay]

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) requested a decision concerning certain general schedule employees' entitlement to overtime compensation. GAO noted that: (1) a BPA employee was assigned a 40-hour basic workweek plus a scheduled 8-hour overtime shift; (2) BPA determined that the employee's weekly overtime compensation under title 5 of the United States Code was more than it would be under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); (3) although the employee's total weekly pay would be more if FLSA were applied, BPA concluded that the comparison between title 5 and FLSA should be based only on overtime compensation, not on total remuneration; and (4) the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) agreed with BPA that overtime compensation should be based on the workweek, not the pay period, but designed an alternative method of calculating title 5 overtime which resulted in a greater entitlement for employees under FLSA. GAO found that: (1) title 5 overtime provisions consist of hours of work which are either in excess of 8 in a day or 40 in a week, not both; (2) under the OPM method, FLSA would apply regardless of whether the comparison was made between overtime compensation or total remuneration; (3) since an employee is entitled to basic pay for a 40-hour workweek, the actual overtime pay is the difference between the basic rate of pay and the overtime rate for those hours; (4) agencies are required to calculate federal employee overtime entitlements under both title 5 and FLSA and apply the authority that provides the greater benefit; and (5) the computation of overtime under FLSA yielded greater total compensation. Accordingly, the employee is entitled to overtime compensation under FLSA.