PPL/COVID/SUNDAY BACK PAY

Good evening Chapter 141,

We receive questions at least twice a month about PPL and when employees will recieve their back pay. While this memo does not give us a time-line, it does reiterate that the fight is over.

We will let you know when we hear anything else.

Thank you for being members!

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May 28, 2024

To implement NTEU’s arbitration win, CBP is reprogramming COSS to allow COPRA night differential during parental leave.

In 2022, an arbitrator held that employees covered under the Customs Officer Pay Reform Act (COPRA) who take parental leave are entitled to the same night differential pay that they would have received if they were working. The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) upheld that decision this past February.

NTEU and CBP are negotiating an agreement to implement these decisions. The agreement will cover not just employees who take parental leave, but also employees who took COVID-related emergency paid leave (EPL). The agreement is also expected to cover employees who took leave during night hours on Sundays.

Implementation is likely to be a long and complex process. Almost 3,000 employees could be affected. And notably, CBP must work with its payroll processor to reprogram COSS to allow COPRA night differential during parental leave.

Because of the complexity of reprogramming COSS, employees taking paid parental leave now and in the immediate future will not receive their night differential on time. They should be assured, however, that they will receive what they are owed—along with other COPRA-covered employees who took paid parental leave since its establishment in October 2020—when CBP issues back pay awards.