MARION A. CHANEY, PETITIONER,
v.
VETERANS ADMINISTRATION, RESPONDENT

Fed. Cir. | 1990-06-25
No. 90-3020
Before NEWMAN, Circuit Judge, and MILLER, Senior Circuit Judge, and MUECKE, Senior District Judge.
906 F.2d 697 United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (1990) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) correctly dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because there was no actual reduction in pay, only a dispute over the calculation of pay raises.


Facts & Procedural History

Petitioner, an employee of the Veterans Administration Medical Center, was granted grade and pay retention after a reduction-in-force action. She alle…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
JACK R. MILLER, Senior Circuit Judge.

JACK R. MILLER, Senior Circuit Judge.

As explained by Petitioner in her brief, Petitioner is employed by the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Erie, Penn sylvania. As a result of a reduction-in-force action (RIF), she was assigned to Supply Service as a Purchasing Agent and was granted grade retention and pay retention. Since that time she became eligible for pay raises in 1988 and 1989, but complains that these and all future pay raises have not been calculated properly under the law, namely: 5 U.S.C. § 5363(b)(1). Thus, she alleges a loss in pay for those years and in the future.

Petitioner filed an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction — this notwithstanding that, as argued by Petitioner, misapplication of the computation procedures for calculating pay raises results in reduction in pay; and 5 U.S.C. § 7512(4) provides that a reduction in pay lays a foundation for an appeal to the MSPB. Further, the MSPB denies that Petitioner has suffered any appealable reduction in pay, whereas Petitioner insists that she is entitled to a hearing before the MSPB because she has in fact experienced a reduction in pay. The issue in this case is whether the MSPB erred in dismissing Petitioner’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction.1 We agree with the MSPB that its jurisdiction, based on a reduction in pay, arises only when an ascertainable lowering, at the time of the personnel action, of an employee’s present or future pay occurs. Garbacz v. United States, 228 Ct.Cl. 309, 656 F. 2d 628, 634 (1981).

There has been no reduction in pay within the meaning of the statute, for Petitioner’s pay has regularly increased, even though there is disagreement over the calculation of the increase. Absent an actual reduction in pay, the MSPB correctly held that it lacked jurisdiction.

AFFIRMED.

. Petitioner argues that a denial of a correct pay increase is a reduction in pay, but cites no authority. See 31 U.S.C. § 3702 ("except as provided in this chapter or another law, the Comptroller General shall settle all claims of or against the United States Government"); Tanaka v. Dep't of the Navy, 21 M.S.P.R. 278, 279-80 (1984), aff'd, 788 F. 2d 1552 (Fed.Cir.1986) (because the Merit Systems Protection Board would not resolve disputes concerning specific elements of a back pay award, these issues were left to the Comptroller General).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw