Payment of Night Differential to Social Security Administration Employees

The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare requested a decision concerning the payment of night differential to employees of the Social Security Administration who perform occasional overtime work at night. Regulation authorizes the payment of night differential to employees who perform regularly scheduled work between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. A decision concerning what constitutes "regularly scheduled" work was requested. Social Security had various employees who on eithe r an irregular or occasional basis worked overtime at night. They have not paid these employees night differential because it was not regularly scheduled work or it was not performed during a regularly scheduled tour of duty falling between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. It has been held that an employee performing occasional overtime duty which falls within a regularly scheduled tour of duty, but not necessarily his scheduled tour, should receive the differential. Thus, where a special workweek was created for some employees, others in that same office who would not normally work the special hours would qualify for differential pay. Where there was no tour of duty or night shift, differential payment has been allowed in two situations: (1) where an employee habitually or recurrently performs overtime work at night because the nature of his employment requires that he remain on duty until his task is completed or someone relieves him; or (2) when the work to be performed is considered regularly scheduled work or work that has been duly authorized in advance and scheduled to recur on successive days or after specified intervals. Thus, it was held that the Social Security Administration should process overtime claims in accordance with the above guidelines and revise their regulations to reflect this decision.