OPM has reminded agencies that they have a number of personnel flexibilities available to them in response to emergencies.
The official hurricane season runs through November, and NOAA has predicted a 70 percent chance of the below normal activity, a 20 percent chance of normal activity and a 10 percent chance of above normal activity, OPM noted. Despite that generally optimistic prediction, “it remains critical that agencies be familiar with the wide range of HR policies and flexibilities currently available to assist federal employees affected by severe weather, natural disasters, and other emergency situations.”
OPM pointed agencies to its handbooks on pay and benefits policies in such situations and in particular called their attention to potential use of telework. Said OPM, “One of the major benefits of telework is its ability to help maintain the continuity of government operations during emergency situations, while ensuring employee safety. If covered in its employees’ telework agreements, an agency may require teleworkers to continue working at alternative worksites, if they are able to do so, on their telework days or on any of their regularly scheduled workdays during emergency situations.”
It added: “Agencies do not have to designate teleworkers as emergency employees to require them to work during a closure; however, OPM recommends that each agency anticipate this possibility in its emergency preparedness planning and discuss this with telework employees in advance. All expectations should be included in employee telework agreements.”
Special charitable solicitations outside the Combined Federal Campaign also may be held, it said.