On Friday, September 25, 2015, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued their final regulations to implement Part 2 of the Border Patrol Agent Pay Reform Act (BPAPRA). A review of the regulations has revealed that OPM is interpreting certain portions of the BPAPRA contrary to what was intended by Congress when they drafted and passed the BPAPRA into law, for example, a prohibition on Alternate Work Schedules (AWS) and additional compensation for canine handlers on their assigned days off duty. There is also confusion on the section that deals with CBP being allowed to drop employees from one tier to another; however, it only clarifies what the Union had made clear prior to the regulations being published, which is that employees will not be able to artificially enhance their retirements by working a lower level of pay for the majority of their career and then at the end, bumping up to a higher level in order to get a greater annuity. The Union will work with Congress in order to resolve the issues via another Amendment to the BPAPRA, or in the case of the canine handlers, through litigation. Click below to read the OPM final regulations.
