|
March 20, 2000 Pay Reform as It Applies to Border Patrol Agents 1. What is included in the Pay Reform package?
2. Who exactly will be covered by LEAP and what will it mean to them? All Border Patrol Agents, Pilots, Deportation Officers, and Detention & Deportation Officers will be paid LEAP. These employees will receive Availability Pay just like INS Criminal Investigators are currently being paid. They will receive 25 percent annual premium pay in exchange for an average of two unscheduled duty hours each workday. 3. What if I am now being paid Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime at less than 25 percent? LEAP is only paid at the 25 percent rate. There is no lower rate. There is a provision, however, for employees to temporarily opt out of Availability Pay if they cannot work the required amount of availability hours due to a personal or family hardship. 4. I have heard that once I am covered by LEAP that the Fair Labor Standards Act will not protect me and the agency can work me to death without paying additional overtime. Surely, this would cause employees to leave in droves. Under LEAP, employees are expected to work their normal eight hours each day, plus an average of two unscheduled duty hours each day. Additionally, if they work scheduled overtime outside of the normal eight hours and beyond the first two additional LEAP duty hours, they will also be paid 45 Act overtime pay. Availability Pay for Criminal Investigators has been in effect for more than five years, and we have not experienced retention problems with these employees based on additional overtime hours. 5. Under the new system, can supervisors take advantage of employees by requiring them to work more than the average two hours of overtime a workday and not pay them? What about unscheduled overtime worked in excess of the average two hours per day? All scheduled overtime that is outside of the normal eight hours workday and beyond the first two availability hours is compensable under Title 5 as 45 Act overtime. LEAP is paid for all unscheduled hours of work. It is not anticipated that the number of hours worked will increase under Pay Reform. 6. What are the real advantages of LEAP Pay for me? INS law enforcement personnel would be compensated in the same manner as other law enforcement officers in the federal government, including agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, INS, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. LEAP will protect the overtime pay of INS officers throughout their careers because it is portable to other LEAP covered positions. It ensures that INS officers are not penalized by career decisions to accept assignments to jobs at locations that may not meet the criteria for payment of AUO, such as training assignments and assignments to headquarters or regional functions. LEAP simplifies and streamlines administration of overtime for officers. It eliminates FLSA that doesnt count for the calculation of retirement benefits. Pay reform establishes a greater pay rate overall which increases the amount that counts for retirement. It eliminates pay compression problems caused by lower graded officers earning more than supervisory officers do because of FLSA overtime payments. What traditionally happens when employees work large amounts of FLSA overtime and get promoted to supervisory positions, is that the amount of their increase in pay as a result of their promotion (typically about 7 percent) is less than the amount of the FLSA overtime that they would lose. Even though employees get an increase in basic pay, their total take home pay increases less than the amount of the promotion, or not at all. If you are not familiar with the provisions of LEAP, you may want to talk with an INS Criminal Investigator about how it works within the Service. 7. What is a special salary rate and how does it work within Pay Reform? Special Salary Rates (SSR) are higher than normal pay rates established by the Office of Personnel Management in one or more areas or locations, to overcome existing or likely significant handicaps in the recruitment or retention of well-qualified personnel. Under the provisions of Pay Reform, the authority to establish and maintain SSRs for our Border Patrol Agents GS-5 through GS-11, will be delegated to the Attorney General. The proposed legislation would allow the Attorney General to set Special Salary Rates (SSR) for Border Patrol Agents in grades GS-5 through GS-11. These rates would be set above the current locality rates payable. The rates would also be set so that when LEAP is added, the average total take home pay would be slightly increased. By establishing a special salary rate, INS eliminates the pay reduction that would occur due to a shift from current overtime compensation to the new system. The SSR will also result in a higher level of pay for agents that counts towards retirement. 8. Can you give an example of how a typical employee would be paid under Special Salary Rates and LEAP versus Locality pay and AUO? Under current pay practices, the typical agent would have been paid his or her locality rate of pay, plus 45 Act overtime time, and FLSA overtime as follows: Locality pay, plus 25 percent of the locality pay as AUO, plus scheduled overtime, plus FLSA overtime for hours over 85.5 per pay period. After implementation of pay reform, the employee would be paid the new special salary rate for his or her grade and step as basic pay, plus 25% percent LEAP and 45 Act overtime at the higher hourly rate derived from his/her special salary rate. An illustrative comparison of current methodology versus SSR/LEAP rates based on 1999 data and rates follows. The "Current" column is an average amount for the grade and includes locality pay, scheduled overtime, AUO, and FLSA overtime. The "New" column includes the new SSR and LEAP. The following table shows what might have been payable in San Diego in 1999 following the methodology discussed above.
As you can see, the total compensation is increased for Border Patrol Agents in grades GS-05 through GS-11. These increases are in addition to any increase based on upgrading the full performance level to GS-11. Also note that because the basic rate of pay increases, that the pay basis and consequently the benefit amount for retirement, TSP, life insurance and lump sum annual leave also increases. For these employees and the agency, it is a win-win situation. The following is an illustrative comparison of the 1999 Locality Rates for Law Enforcement Officers in San Diego and Draft 1999 Border Patrol Special Salary Rates (GS-05 through GS-11) for the San Diego area. The special salary rates are illustrative and are for comparison purposes only. Upon enactment of the legislation, all special salary rates would be established prospectively. All computations are based on existing statutory and regulatory provisions. 1999 LEO/Locality Basic Pay Rate 1999 Special Salary Rate (Basic Pay) GS-5/01: $27,579 GS-5/01: Approximately $30,000 GS-11/04: $45,097 GS-11/04: Approximately $49,000 These increases in basic pay have several effects:
9. What happens when a typical GS-11 is promoted to a GS-12 supervisor? This system rewards employees for taking supervisory positions. For example: Under the current system using LEO/Locality rates. In 1999 a GS-11/4 in San Diego was paid $45,097 (including basic pay and locality pay). Basic pay (not locality) for a GS-11/4 was $41,518. On promotion, an employee is entitled to have his or her salary set in the new grade at the first rate that exceeds his/her old salary by two steps. A GS-11/6 was paid $44,034. The first GS-12 step that exceeded $44,034 was GS-12/1 at $45,236, and the employee would have been entitled to a San Diego locality rate of $49,135.($49,135 minus $45,097 = $4,038 or 9 percent raise) Under the new system with Special Salary rates. Basic pay for a GS-11/4 would be approximately $49,000. GS-11/6 would be approximately $51,500. The first step of the GS-12 (basic pay) on the GS schedule that exceeded $51,500 is GS-12/6 at $52,776 (again, based on actual 1999 rates), and the employee would have been entitled to a San Diego locality rate of $57,325.($57,325 minus $49,000 = $8,325 or 17 percent raise) Instead of a 9% raise that the employee would receive under the current system, 10. What happens if the agency were to terminate the Special Salary rate? The INS has no intention of terminating special rates. The Pay Reform proposal gives the Attorney General the authority to set the special rates. Existing Federal regulations provide that no employees pay shall be reduced because of the discontinuation or revision of a special salary rate. Therefore, you are protected from loss. The same GS-11/4 in San Diego making $49,000 would have his or her salary increased. The $49,000 would become the employee's basic pay and a locality payment of 8.62 percent (based on 1999 rates) would be added for San Diego, providing a new salary of $53,295, all of which counts toward retirement. 11. What happens if for some reason the Attorney General does not establish the Special Salary Rates? Will INS rethink Pay Reform? The Attorney General has already publicly stated her support for the Pay Reform package as presented, which includes the special salary rates. 12. Will INS offer BPAs an incentive for Spanish language skills? Special pay? No. The INS does not pay a foreign language bonus because we teach the language to our employees and it is a requirement of the job. 13. Why werent Detention Enforcement Officers (DEOs) included in LEAP? DEOs were not included in LEAP because their work in not typically unscheduled. In addition the journey level of these positions is not as high as the new journey level for Border Patrol Agents making the loss of Fair Labor Standards Act coverage (which is required with LEAP) difficult to justify. 14. What happens to the GS-12 Supervisory Border Patrol Agents that recently gained FLSA coverage through court action? Employees covered by LEAP are by law exempted from the overtime provisions of the FLSA. Implementation of LEAP will cause their FLSA status to revert to exempt, and will provide them with an overtime system and compensation that counts toward retirement. 15. Will the current GS-11 Senior Border Patrol Agents be upgraded as a result of the implementation of Pay Reform? The GS-11 agents are currently properly graded as GS-11 for the work they perform. However, they will benefit from the provisions of Pay Reform, which include the payment of LEAP and the new special salary rates. 16. Will anyone be adversely affected by pay reform? For some people, only about 62 pilots and 950 supervisory GS-12 agents, there will be a loss of FLSA overtime earnings which is not offset by SSRs. The average loss for pilots will be $4,500. The impact to the supervisory GS-12 agents is unknown because they have not yet started earning FLSA. This also occurred in 1994 when Criminal Investigators throughout the federal government were changed to coverage under LEAP in order to provide a simplified means of compensating them fairly for the long hours associated with law enforcement activities, and exempt them from complicated FLSA overtime provisions. |
Last Modified 02/20/2003