Federal Officers Lose |Bid for Commute Pay

(CN) - Courts have repeatedly struck down overtime pay requests for commute time, and about 6,400 federal law enforcement officers fared no better in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

"As is abundantly clear from numerous decisions of this court and the Federal Circuit, the driving time claims currently before the court are without merit," Judge Lynn Bush wrote.

Bush noted that the Federal Circuit dismissed two major lawsuits seeking overtime pay for commute time in Bobo v. U.S. and Adams v. U.S.

The Adams plaintiffs weren't granted a rehearing before the full federal appeals court and lost their bid for review in the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Bush noted.

"Plaintiffs' counsel, nonetheless, has continued to litigate the driving time claims of other federal law enforcement officers before the undersigned and other judges of this court," she wrote.

"These claims have been rejected as foreclosed by the precedential holdings of Bobo and Adams II," which determined that the government has no duty to pay employees for the time spent driving to and from work, Bush wrote.

She rejected the officers' claim that Bobo and Adams II aren't good law.

Federal employees must be paid for travel required by the job. However, the Fair Labor Standards Act does not mandate payment for the basic commute to and from work.

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