300,000 fed workers/reservist owed monies

Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007
Subject: Re: Up to 300,000 feds who served as military reservists owed back pay

> You need to make it clear to all AIR Reservists and AIR National
Guardsmen that the firm of Tulley, Rinker and Assoc. has no intention of of
Representing them in this matter. I have lost 1 year of time in trying
to deal with them. They claimed to have lost my forms for 6 months
then when asked to resubmit I did and after consistently calling them they
told me they no longer represent AIR National Guardsmen because of the
troubles they face getting records.

> This firm, based in Syracuse, is a joke. As a Guardsman you can file
a FOI Request with the National Personnel Records Center at
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/ the request must
be in writing through the mail, then take the affected deployments
orders to your Guard Unit and file with them as they have the actual pay
records which they will match up and send to Florida for processing. If
the Guard Unit gives the person a hard time they can file with the Merit
Systems Protection Board at https://e-appeal.mspb.gov/default.aspx if
you file a claim your DMNA office will contact you and get the ball
rolling. When I filed with the MSPB I requested a hearing as that puts
the pressure on the Guard to get the paperwork done before the hearing
date.

September 03, 2007

> An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 current and former federal
employees who served as military reservists may be able to recoup money for
leave days that were improperly charged to them dating back to 1980.

> The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on Aug. 28
that Jose Hernandez, a retired Air Force civilian aircraft mechanic,
was entitled to be considered for reimbursement for leave that was
charged to him for reserve duty from 1980 to 2001, so it sent his case back
to the Merit Systems Protection Board for reconsideration.

> The ruling could potentially cost the federal government more than
$1 billion, said Hernandez's attorney, Mathew Tully, who practices in
Albany, N.Y. Tully, who has represented reservists in thousands of
similar cases and is also a columnist for Federal Times, said he estimates
between 100,000 to 300,000 people could be eligible to receive refunds
averaging between $1,500 to $3,000.

> But affected reservists have to file individually to get
reimbursed. There is no time limit.

> Employees must submit administrative claims to their own agencies,
and agencies must make their own determination whether to process the
claims, according to a written response from the Office of Personnel
Management.

> OPM officials noted that agencies should be aware that the Labor
Department's Veterans' Employment and Training Service and Labor's Office
of Solicitor, and the Office of Special Counsel have taken the
position that federal employers are bound by the Merit System Protection
Board's case law. "Therefore, VETS, SOL and OSC will likely accept,
investigate, and endeavor to resolve or prosecute claims going back to 1980."

> The case is also important for reservists because it sets the
precedent of requiring agencies to provide reservists documentation they
need to prove their cases, said Leisha Self, legal rights attorney for the
American Federation of Government Employees.

> The court requires MSPB to reconsider Hernandez's subpoena for
Defense Finance and Accounting Service records going back to 1980.

> Many employees "don't have records going back to 1980," Self said.

> In a related decision in a separate case on Aug. 29, the same court
made another move to nudge federal agencies to treat reservists in
these cases more favorably. "We make clear that, while not legally
obligated to do so, agencies may resolve claims by providing more compensation
than an individual has been able to prove," the judges stated.

> That, the judges stated, "hel