The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has agreed to pay more than $6.5 million in back wages to almost 900 pilots, co-pilots, and flight engineers, according to the Department of Labor.

The employees worked on several USPS contracts and subcontracts to transport mail by air between January 1996 and August 2001. The department says that the wages paid were subject to requirements of the Service Contract Act (SCA).

The USPS and other parties -- contractors, the Air Force and the Air Line Pilots Association -- challenged before the Labor Department's Administrative Review Board a change in the method used by the department's Wage and Hour Division to determine new, higher prevailing wage rates for flight-crew employees. USPS did not incorporate the higher rates for pilots, co-pilots, and flight engineers into their contracts and brought the matter to the review board. The board vacated Wage and Hour's method of computing the new rates and remanded the matter for issuance of a new wage determination.

This settlement resolves issues raised over 10 years ago by the challenge before the Administrative Review Board. The USPS contractors and subcontractors affected by this settlement are Ryan International Airlines, Express One International Inc. and Evergreen International Airlines Inc. Under the agreement, USPS will directly contact and make back wage payments to the employees who worked on the contracts and subcontracts.