Code of the District of Columbia

§ 1–611.03. Compensation policy; compensatory time off; overtime pay.

(a) Compensation for all employees in the Career, Educational, Legal, Excepted, and the Management Supervisory Services shall be fixed in accordance with the following policy:

(1) Compensation shall be competitive with that provided to other public sector employees having comparable duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and working conditions by occupational groups. For the purpose of this paragraph, compensation shall be deemed to be competitive if it falls reasonably within the range of compensation of public sector employees in jurisdictions with costs of living and working conditions comparable to the District or of employees in the federal government; provided, that compensation for Legal Service attorneys shall be fixed in accordance with § 1-608.58.

(2) Pay for the various occupations and groups of employees shall be, to the maximum extent practicable, interrelated and equal for substantially equal work in accordance with this principle, dental officers shall be paid on the same schedule as medical officers having comparable qualifications and experiences.

(3) Differences in pay shall be maintained in keeping with differences in level of work and quality of performance.

(4) Repealed.

(5) Repealed.

(6) Repealed.

(7)(A) Any full-time permanent, indefinite, or term employee of a District agency or independent agency, who serves in a reserve component of the United States Armed Forces and who has been or will be called to active duty in preparation for, or as a result of, Operation New Dawn, Operation Odyssey Dawn, or any contingency operation as defined in 10 U.S.C. § 101(a)(13), shall receive, upon application and approval, an amount that equals the difference in compensation between the employee's District government basic pay reduced by the employee's basic military pay. This amount shall not be considered as basic pay for any purpose and shall be paid for any period following the formal inception of Operation New Dawn in 2010, any period following the formal inception of Operation Odyssey Dawn in 2011, or any period following the formal inception of any contingency operation as defined in 10 U.S.C. § 101(a)(13), during which the employee is carried in a non-pay status from the time the employee is called into active duty, until the employee is released from active duty occasioned by any of these military operations, or, in the case of a term employee, until the date of the end of the term of employment.

(B) The Mayor shall issue rules within 30 days of March 26, 2008, to implement the provisions of this paragraph.

(b) The pay of an individual receiving an annuity under any District government civilian retirement system selected for employment in the District government on or after January 1, 1980, shall be reduced by the amount of annuity allocable to the period of employment as a reemployed annuitant. No salary subject to this reduction shall be reduced to less than any applicable minimum wage set forth in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, approved June 25, 1938 (52 Stat. 1060; 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq.), or any other applicable federal minimum wage statute or regulation. No reduction shall be made to the pay of a reemployed individual for any retirement benefits received by the reemployed individual pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 8331, §§ 1-626.03 through 1-626.12, § 5-723(e), the Judges’ Retirement Fund, established by § 1-714, or the Retired Police Officer Public Schools Security Personnel Deployment Amendment Act of 1994.

(c) Repealed.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provisions of law or regulation, effective April 15, 1986, any employee who is covered by the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq.)(“FLSA”), and is eligible to earn compensatory time may receive compensatory time off at a rate not less than 1 and one-half hours for each hour of employment for which overtime compensation is required under the FLSA, in lieu of paid overtime compensation.

(1) If the work of an employee for which compensatory time off may be provided includes work in a public safety activity, an emergency response activity, or a seasonal activity, the employee may accrue not more than 480 hours of compensatory time for hours worked after April 15, 1986. If the work of an employee does not include work in a public safety activity, an emergency response activity, or a seasonal activity, the employee may accrue not more than 240 hours of compensatory time for hours worked after April 15, 1986.

(2) Any employee who, after April 15, 1986, has accrued the maximum number of hours of compensatory time off allowed under paragraph (1) of this subsection shall, for additional hours of work, be paid overtime compensation.

(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of District law or regulation, effective on the first day of the first pay period beginning one month after November 25, 1993, entitlement to and computation of overtime for all employees of the District government, except those covered by a collective bargaining agreement providing otherwise, shall be determined in accordance with, and shall not exceed, the overtime provisions of section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 207. No person shall be entitled to overtime under this section unless that person is either entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act or is entitled to overtime under the personnel rules of the District of Columbia as they existed at the time of enactment of this section.

(f)(1) Repealed.

(2)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B) of this paragraph, uniformed members of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department at the rank of Assistant Fire Chief and above shall not receive overtime compensation for work performed in excess of 40 hours in an administrative workweek and in excess of 48 hours in a workweek for those uniformed members of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department at the rank of Assistant Fire Chief and above in the Firefighting Division.

(B) For fiscal years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, uniformed members of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department at the rank of Battalion Fire Chief and above shall not receive overtime compensation for work performed in excess of 40 hours in an administrative workweek and in excess of 48 hours in a workweek for those uniformed members of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department at the rank of Deputy Fire Chief and above in the Firefighting Division.

(3) Uniformed members of the Metropolitan Police Department at the rank of Inspector and above and uniformed members of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department at the rank of Assistant Fire Chief and above shall not be suspended for disciplinary actions for less than a full pay period.

(4)(A)(i) For fiscal years 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, and except as provided in subparagraph (B) of this paragraph, no officer or member of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department who is authorized to receive overtime compensation under this subsection may earn overtime in excess of $20,000 in a fiscal year.

(ii) For Fiscal Year 2015, and except as provided in subparagraph (B) of this paragraph, no officer or member of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department who is authorized to receive overtime compensation under this subsection may earn overtime in excess of $30,000 in a fiscal year.

(B) This paragraph shall not apply to a member of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department who is classified as a Heavy Mobile Equipment Mechanic or a Fire Arson Investigator Armed (Canine Handler).

(C) Notwithstanding any other provision of this paragraph, the exemption to the overtime limitation for the Fire Arson Investigator Armed (Canine Handler) set forth in subparagraph (B) of this paragraph shall apply retroactively to fiscal year 2011.

(g)(1) The Chief of Police may grant time off, to be considered FLSA-exempt, to uniformed members of the Metropolitan Police Department at the rank of Inspector and above, and the civilian equivalents, for work performed in excess of an 80-hour biweekly pay period, excluding roll call; provided, that:

(A) FLSA-exempt time off granted to any individual employee shall not exceed a total of 80 hours in any consecutive 12-month period;

(B) FLSA-exempt time off shall be forfeited if not used by the end of the leave year following the leave year in which it was earned; and

(C) FLSA-exempt time off not used at the time of an employee’s separation from service shall not be included in any form of leave payment.

(2) The Mayor, subchapter I of Chapter 5 of Title 2, shall issue rules to implement the provisions of this subsection.