Contact: Peter Kovar (Frank) 202-225-9400; Michael Mershon (McGovern) 202-225-6101; Andrew Caruolo (Kennedy) 401-729-5600; Joy Fox (Langevin) 401-732-9400

Four U.S. Congressmen representing Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island today expressed their strong disagreement with a recent decision by a federal advisory panel to deny fair pay to federal government workers in the region who are compensated on an hourly basis, and the lawmakers vowed to continue fighting for a more equitable pay system for the workers.

Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA), James McGovern (D-MA), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), and James Langevin (D-RI) said they were very disappointed that the Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee (FPRAC) voted recently against a proposal that would have brought “blue-collar” federal hourly wage workers in Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts, into the same higher wage area as workers in the Boston area. The Congressmen said they would continue pushing for adoption of legislation or new rules that would allow the workers to shift into the higher wage area.

“I am disappointed that the committee failed to take action to establish a more fair federal wage structure in our area,” Frank said. “Our entire region faces the same economic pressures, and people who live throughout the area have to deal with high costs for housing, gasoline, and other daily needs. It makes no sense to treat hourly federal workers differently from those who are paid annual salaries, and I will be discussing with my colleagues how best to address this inequity.”

“Blue-collar workers in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts deserve the same consideration as salaried, white-collar workers,” Kennedy said. “The fact that they don't receive the same consideration proves that this system is broken. The FRPAC's vote to perpetuate a broken system is disappointing, but it will not stop those of us in Congress who care about the blue-collar workers in our districts from fighting to rectify this unfair situation.”

“I am disappointed by this ruling,” McGovern said. “Federal workers in Southeastern Massachusetts deserve equal pay for equal work in line with their counterparts in the Boston region.”

“I am frustrated with this recent decision,” said Langevin. “There is no reason to exclude Rhode Islanders and our neighbors right across the state line who are hourly federal employees from receiving a wage competitive with those living in the Boston-area. We are all experiencing the same economic difficulties and should not be left behind. I look forward to working with my colleagues, including Mr. Frank, to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”

Currently, salaried federal white-collar employees in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts are included in the Boston locality pay area and paid according to the same salary structure as federal employees in the greater Boston area. Blue collar workers, many of whom are employed by the Newport, Rhode Island naval base, remain in a separate, lower pay structure area. On July 24, FPRAC voted 6 – 5, with Chairman Charles Brooks casting the deciding vote, against a proposal that would have shifted the Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts hourly federal workers into the Boston wage region.

Hourly workers from the area and unions that represent them have for several years been seeking to merge the Rhode Island-Southeastern Massachusetts hourly wage area with the Boston area, but FPRAC was unable to take any action on a proposal along those lines for over two years because the Bush Administration did not appoint an FPRAC chair. During that period, the four Congressmen introduced legislation (H.R. 2375) to make the shift mandatory, and also included a provision in an appropriations bill urging the Office of Personal Management (OPM) to make the change.

Last year, after the Administration appointed Brooks as Chairman, FPRAC convened a working group to study the broader issue of how to best determine wage area boundaries, and under what circumstances areas should be merged. The working group proposed several alternatives, but the full membership of FPRAC rejected all but one of them. The alternative that was approved permits mergers only in cases involving hourly wage areas with a small number of workers, well below the number who work in the Rhode Island-Southeastern Massachusetts area.