Request for Environmental Differential Payment

A food service worker appealed a settlement by the Claims Division which denied him retroactive payment of environmental differential for cold work. The hospital where he worked did not retain duty schedules or work assignment records for the years in question. Thus it was impossible to determine how many times the worker was assigned to obtain food from the freezer. Where pertinent records are unavailable, however, the Comptroller General has approved payment of environmental differential for an estimated number of hours, where such estimate is based upon available records of the employee's job duties. The hospital had conducted a study in order to prepare an estimate of employees' work in freezers and had filed a claim for each employee who had responsibility for entering the freezer. The study revealed that the claimant was not entitled to environmental differential pay, because the hospital did not file a claim on his behalf, nor did he file a claim on his own behalf at the time of the study. The authority to determine whether the assigned duties of an employee involve situations for which an environmental differential is authorized is vested primarily in the agency concerned. In the absence of clear and convincing evidence negating the information contained in the administrative report of the agency or which indicates that the agency determination was arbitrary and capricious, GAO will not substitute its judgment for that of the agency. The claimant presented no such evidence. The claim for retroactive payment of environmental differential for cold work was therefore denied.