COURT ORDERS BACK PAY

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit modified an arbitrator’s award that had ordered an employee reinstated but without back pay.

The case arose when an employee of SSA’s National Computer Center inadvertently damaged some equipment while expressing dissatisfaction with how an office move was going. The agency fired him, and the union took the case to arbitration, arguing only that discharge was too severe a punishment under the circumstances.

In an award issued about eleven months after the removal, the arbitrator agreed that discharge was not appropriate. He in effect converted the discharge to an eleven month suspension, because he ordered the employee reinstated but without back pay.

The union appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals to the Federal Circuit, arguing that under the law an arbitrator, like the MSPB, must set suspensions for specific, rationally-established, lengths of time. The court agreed, and remanded the case to the arbitrator with instructions to set a specific suspension.

The parties then met an agreed to a five month suspension, resulting in the employee getting six months back pay.