Propriety of Retroactive Pay Increases for School Employees

The Army requested an advance decision concerning the propriety of retroactive pay increases for civilian employees holding nonteaching positions at the Fort Rucker, Alabama, elementary school. At schools provided for children living on federal property, nonteaching personnel may be employed under conditions exempting them from civil service laws applicable to other federal employees. There is no provision, however, that exempts these employees from the Back Pay Act of 1966. The Fort Rucker Elementary School Board adopted a policy in 1969 of paying school support personnel on an equivalent basis with federal general schedule and wage board employees. Support personnel pay was then frozen from April 1974 to March 1977 by Army procurement officials, who felt that the employees were not entitled to be paid on the same basis as federal civil service employees. GAO held that the procurement officials through unjustified and unwarranted personnel actions withheld from the support employees the cost-of-living increases and step increases authorized for civil service employees. It was the opinion of GAO that the Fort Rucker Elementary School Board had the right to amend the rate of pay of school employees under Army regulations, and that this policy remained in effect regardless of the action of the Army procurement officials. The employees were therefore entitled to backpay that had been withheld from 1974 to 1977.