Press Releases

In response to a letter Congresswoman Pingree sent in June, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said today that they have found a solution to technical issues that have prevented firefighters at its facilities from receiving agreed-on premium pay for Saturday work.  However, the agency said it is still months away from calculating over 10 years of retroactive premium pay it owes the firefighters.

“It’s been a year since the VA reached an agreement on providing a Saturday premium to the firefighters who protect its facilities, but these hardworking men and women have yet to receive a cent of it,” said Pingree. “I’m glad those firefighters will finally be able to receive their full pay going forward.” 

In 2014, the VA reached an agreement to give firefighters premium pay for Saturday work (1.25x their normal hourly rate), but technical issues with its payroll software have kept the extra amount from going into firefighters’ paychecks. The VA also has not awarded 10 years of back premium pay that it agreed to provide. Pingree got involved after learning that little was being done to reach a solution. Today’s letter said that the VA has found a solution for distributing Saturday pay earned in future periods, but that it doesn’t expect to calculate and award the retroactive payments until June of 2016.  

“The VA’s timeline for calculating and awarding 10 years of back pay is completely unacceptable,” said Pingree.  “I heard a lot of technical excuses on why it will take another year. What I plan on telling them is that these firefighters have already been denied their earned compensation for far too long—stop making excuses and just get it done.”

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)—which represents the firefighters—commended Pingree for her efforts. “AFGE applauds Congresswoman Pingree for her persistent efforts to secure fair compensation for VA firefighters and we urge the Department to act as quickly as possible to ensure that these dedicated VA employees receive back premium pay in a timely manner,” the organization said.