AF lags in paying post allowance claims

AF lags in paying post allowance claims
By Matt Millham, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, October 18, 2008

Five U.S. Department of Defense organizations paid more than $8.4 million in restitution through the end of September to overseas workers who weren’t paid post allowances they were eligible for, according to figures provided this week by the DOD.

That sum — which might represent less than one-fifth of what current and former workers could receive if all those eligible file claims — seems to indicate that four of the organizations involved are moving quickly to put the episode behind them. Only the Air Force has lagged behind, processing only 1 percent of its claims.

Payments have so far averaged more than $15,000 per person — they are likely so high because many employees are owed several years’ worth of post allowance, a supplement that can add more than $10,000 to a worker’s annual salary.

The payments are in response to a March 21 ruling from the DOD that reinforced a 1995 policy mandating payments of post allowance — a cost-of-living allowance — to U.S. citizens hired overseas for full-time jobs with nonappropriated fund organizations. The ruling ordered the organizations to start paying the allowance, and to compensate workers for roughly six years of unpaid allowances.

About 2,850 current employees, along with an unknown number of former workers, qualify for compensation.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58218