AFGE Council 228, Representing All AFGE SBA Locals, Settles Nationwide Class Action Lawsuit Against the US Small Business Administration.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009.  Washington, DC.  The Law Offices of Snider & Associates, LLC announced today that the US Small Business Administration has agreed to settle a nationwide Grievance/ Arbitration brought by Federal Union AFGE Council 228, headed by Elaine Powell-Belnavis of New York City, regarding overtime exemptions and pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The settlement, signed yesterday by Arbitrator Michael Wolf and previously signed by the US Government, the Union and the law firm, will protect about one thousand current SBA employees in the future and ensure that they are properly classified under the FLSA.

SBA has agreed to pay $7.6 million to current and former SBA employees who were not compensated properly under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“The Union and SBA management worked together to resolve this matter,” said Michael J. Snider, Esq. of Snider & Associates LLC., Lead Counsel for AFGE Council 228, adding that “this settlement will ensure that the Agency will comply with the regulations under the FLSA and will protect both current and future SBA employees.” The Union and SBA had engaged in two years of wrangling over procedural matters and had scheduled  a dozen days of hearings before agreeing to sit down and mediate a resolution of the case. 

The class action Grievance and Arbitration, which covers up to an estimated 1200 current and former SBA employees nationwide, alleged that hundreds of employees were misclassified as exempt under the FLSA, were denied a choice of compensatory time off (“comp time”), and/or not properly compensated for travel time and “off the clock” work, known as suffer or permit overtime. The Grievance also alleged damages on behalf of already FLSA non-exempt employees for comp time and suffer or permit violations.

The Grievance was initiated in 2006 by Elaine Powell-Belnavis, President of AFGE Council 228.