Kent Anderson v. Donald Hodel, Secretary of the Interior

This case involves a dispute over an interpretation of several complex provisions of the Prevailing Rate Employees Act (the “Act”), Title 5 U.S.C. § 5341 et seq. (1989), and the relevant parts of the Code of Federal Regulations, 5 C.F.R. Part 532 (1988). Appellant Kent Anderson (“Anderson”) is an employee of the Hungry Horse Project (the “Project”), a hydroelectric dam in Montana, operated by the Bureau of Reclamation (the “Bureau”). The Bureau is an appellee, along with the Office of Personnel Management (the “OPM”), the Secretary of the Interior, and the Directors of the OPM and the Bureau.

Until 1981, hourly employees of the Project were part of a bargaining unit represented by the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers (“IBEW”) which negotiated the employees wages through a collective bargaining agreement. On June 16, 1981, the hourly employees voted to decer-tify the IBEW as their bargaining representative, apparently in the hope of obtaining better wages. As a result of the vote, the Bureau was left without established wages. To enable the employees to continue working, the Bureau extended the bargaining agreement rates pending the establishment of a new wage…