The case in nutshell:

(August 28, 2014) Postal Inspectors Robert Nigg (now retired) and Keith Lewis claimed that they were entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The Postal Inspectors alleged that the Postal Service failed to pay their proper wages for (i) hours they worked in excess of forty hours per week and (ii) hours they worked on duty assignments. The trial court found that the Postal Inspectors could not assert claims under the FLSA because they were governed by a different compensation standard under 39 U.S.C. § 1003(c).  USPS also argued the Postal Inspectors duties were similar to a “desk” police officer.  The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded the case for the District Court to analyze and determine their claims under the FLSA rather than Section 1003(c). The case  (initially filed in 2003) has been in the court system for over 11 years. But now this case has reached the end of the road.  The U.S. Supreme Court denied the Postal Inspectors “Petition for a writ of certiorari” filed on April 2, 2014. Read on…..

The court’s ruling in 2007 did not change with the November 2013 final decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

This appeal principally involves the relationship between two labor statutes—the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and a 1996 statute related to compensation for postal inspectors, 39 U.S.C. § 1003(c). Robert Nigg, a postal inspector currently employed by the United States Postal Service (“the Postal Service”) and Keith Lewis, a retired postal inspector, sued the Postal Service alleging that the inspectors are entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” or “the Act”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219. The Postal Service does not pay postal inspectors FLSA overtime, instead claiming that their pay is governed by 39 U.S.C. § 1003(c). At issue is whether the compensation provision in § 1003(c) trumps the overtime provisions of the FLSA.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Postal Service, reasoning that 39 U.S.C. § 1003(c), which requires the Postal Service to pay the inspectors on a basis of “comparability” to other similarly tasked executive branch employees, permits the Postal Service to provide “availability pay” rather than FLSA overtime. The court adopted the Postal Service’s argument that postal inspectors are comparable to certain other federal law enforcement officers who receive availability pay under the Law Enforcement Availability Pay Act, Pub. L. No. 103-329 § 633, 108 Stat. 2382 (1994).

FLSA overtime and availability pay differ significantly, both in terms of the hours of work required to qualify, and the way in which pay is calculated. For example, FLSA overtime entitles a covered employee to overtime pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week. See 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1). In contrast, availability pay requires a covered employee to work an average of two extra hours of overtime per day beyond the eight hour day for the entire year to be entitled to extra pay for the extra hours worked. See, e.g., 5 U.S.C. § 5545a(a)-(d).

FLSA’s overtime provisions presumptively apply to federal employees, such as the inspectors, unless a specific FLSA exemption applies. See 5 C.F.R. § 551.202(a) (“Each employee is presumed to be FLSA nonexempt unless the employing agency correctly determines that the employee clearly meets one or more of the exemption criteria[.]”). In enacting § 1003(c), Congress did not amend or repeal the FLSA, either explicitly or implicitly. We conclude that § 1003(c) is not clearly in conflict with the FLSA, and that Congress did not impliedly repeal the FLSA. See Moyle v. Dir., Office of Workers’ Comp. Programs, 147 F.3d 1116, 1120 (9th Cir. 1998) (“ ‘Repeals by implication . . . are not favored and will only be found when the new[er] statute is clearly repugnant, in words or purpose, to the old statute . . . .’ ”) (quoting Kee Leasing Co. v. McGahan (In re Glacier Bay), 944 F.2d 577, 581 (9th Cir. 1991)). We reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the Postal Service and remand with instructions to consider whether the inspectors satisfy any FLSA exemption or are entitled to FLSA overtime.

Robert Nigg and Keith Lewis v. United States Postal Service
from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Docket Entries
on June 9, 2014 Petition DENIED.
on May 20, 2014 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of June 5, 2014.
on May 12, 2014 Waiver of right of respondent United States Postal Service to respond filed.
on April 2, 2014 Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due May 12, 2014)

Parties
Robert Nigg and Keith Lewis, Petitioner, represented by Daniel A. Osborn
United States Postal Service, Respondent, represented by Donald B. Verrilli Jr.

Related link: Postal Inspectors Sue USPS for Overtime Pay