Back Pay

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to clarify the right of a surviving spouse to collect death benefits when a maritime worker eventually dies from injuries or illnesses HTC suffered on the job at a marine terminal or shipyard.Lower federal courts are in dispute over whether a survivor is entitled to death benefits in cases in which the deceased spouse already had reached settlements -- with insurance companies or other firms -- that were not approved by his employer.Under federal law, a marine employee loses otherwise guaranteed company benefits if that worker settles money claims with outsiders without approval from the worker's employer.

WASHINGTON -- The government is doing billions of dollars' worth of business with companies that fire workers for union activism, intimidate employees and commit other labor violations.The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says 80 companies won a total of $23 billion from the government in 1993 despite having broken federal labor law. The list includes two Maryland companies -- Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s Electronic Systems division in Linthicum and Caterair International Inc. in Bethesda -- and several companies that operate in the state but are not based here.

Anne Arundel County must pay nearly $3 million in overtime compensationwithheld from paramedics since the late 1980s in violation of federal labor laws, according to a federal court ruling.Senior U.S. District Judge Walter E. Black ruled last summer in favor of the paramedics, who sued to receive time-and-a-half pay for work over 40 hours in a week.But the amount of compensation to be paid was not resolved until Jan. 19, when Judge Black held that Anne Arundel County must pay each of the 128 paramedics affected by the decision amounts ranging from $1,600 to $48,000.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mike Holmgren is supposed to know all the secrets of the San Francisco 49ers offense because he was the team's offensive coordinator for six years before becoming Green Bay Packers head coach.So what was Holmgren's advice for Packers defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur this week?"I tried put in my two cents," Holmgren said. "I said, 'Let's watch Jerry Rice. Make sure he's covered.' "Holmgren said Shurmur replied, "Is that all?"Shurmur stopped Rice yesterday with a scheme that featured double coverage and jamming him at the line of scrimmage.

WASHINGTON -- A quarter-million federal employees were ordered to come to work this morning simply to shut down their offices and go home as the budget impasse between President Clinton and Republican lawmakers dragged into a third day.It was unclear last night how long the second partial government shutdown in a month would last. The two sides had no contact yesterday, and they continued to blame each other for the collapse of talks intended to balance the budget in seven years."The ball is in his court," House Speaker Newt Gingrich said yesterday of Mr. Clinton, who, the Republicans contend, has not put a credible budget offer on the table.

Baltimore County must pay an estimated $1.2 million in back wages to its unionized police officers because they were illegally furloughed for five days during a 1992 budget crunch, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday.The Court of Appeals said in a unanimous ruling that a provision in the union's contract forbidding furloughs was valid and that the 1992 furloughs were not authorized by county or state law."Neither the Baltimore County charter nor the Baltimore County code contains any provision which authorizes what the county did here," Judge John C. Eldridge wrote in a 20-page decision.

An administrative law judge ruled yesterday that the managers of Harbor Cruises Ltd. violated federal labor laws by firing workers and admonishing them not to complain during and after a 1994 unionizing drive by the waiters and waitresses aboard the Bay Lady and Lady Baltimore tour boats.Judge John H. West ordered the company, which runs dinner cruises out of the Inner Harbor, to rehire and pay back wages with interest to employees fired after the 1994 organizing drive by Local 37 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

$TC The Maryland State Police yesterday agreed to promote and pay back wages to a group of white, male officers passed over in favor of minorities who had scored lower on promotional exams.The settlement, which resolves two federal reverse discrimination suits, requires the agency to pay $243,000 in back pay to 99 officers, promote 17 of them, and pay another $55,000 in attorney fees.But because the promotions and back pay are part of a settlement, rather than a judge's ruling, the impact is unclear.

At least three employees of the Pasadena Spa Lady are suing the company that formerly managed the fitness center for up to 14 weeks of back pay.Seven employees, most of them aerobics instructors, say Club Management Corp. owes one woman more than $2,300."I haven't seen a paycheck [from CMC] since May," said Patricia Piper, a part-time aerobics instructor. She said the company owes her about $800."They'd always say the check is in the mail," but it never was, she said.Jean Lauer, who said the company owes her more than $2,300 for her work as a baby-sitter and a maintenance worker from July 16 to Oct. 6, said no one answered her numerous phone calls to CMC's management office in Timonium.

Almost all of Baltimore's 26,294 municipal workers will receive back pay they sacrificed in a 1992 "wage furlough," according to a settlement announced yesterday between the city and three unions.The city agreed to repay a little more than half of the 2 1/2 days of pay that was withheld as a money-saving measure to cope with $40 million in state budget cuts.For a city schoolteacher who earns about $30,000, that would mean $180, said Linda Prudente, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Teachers Union, which represents about 8,500 teachers.