[Appeal of Settlement Regarding Deductions from Backpay]

A Government employees union appealed a GAO Claims Group settlement on behalf of an employee of the National Park Service. The settlement determined that fellowship monies and compensation received by the employee for part-time employment during a period of improper separation from the Park Service had to be deducted from the backpay which was later awarded the employee by the Park Service. The union contended that the agency improperly deducted the fellowship grant monies which he received for the purposes of studies and research during his own education from the backpay to which he was found entitled because of the unjustified personnel separation. GAO found that a fellowship grant, the primary purpose of which is to further the recipient's education, cannot be characterized as compensation for an employee's services under current statutory law and were not deductible from the employee's backpay. The compensation for part-time research services at the university, which the employee had agreed to perform prior to his separation from the Park Service, was also in question. Because the employee failed to demonstrate that any part of the amount which he received would have accrued to him had he not been separated from the Park Service, GAO held that the full amount earned by the employee through his research for the university must be deducted from his backpay. Accordingly, the settlement was reversed in part and sustained in part.