Locality pay is based on an employee’s official duty station, not place of residence (although the two are the same for remote work where there is no expectation to report regularly to an agency facility). Image: SevenMaps/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general audit has found some instances of incorrect pay for offsite workers at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, although adding that the agency itself previously had identified those cases and had taken action to correct the pay rates.
The report is the latest in a series requested by Capitol Hill Republicans during the Biden administration questioning whether employees working offsite full-time or nearly so were receiving a higher rate of locality pay than they should have—for example after having moved to a lower-cost area during the pandemic. Locality pay is based on an employee’s official duty station, not place of residence (although the two are the same for remote work where there is no expectation to report regularly to an agency facility).
In a review of 117 duty station changes over about three years through last July, auditors found six “discrepancies” in records regarding duty stations involving some $12,000. The report said the NRC already had acted to resolve those discrepancies did not specify whether that involved underpayment or overpayment.
Issues identified by the IG included that payroll system records did not correctly reflect that 97 employees were in telework status; and that required telework and remote agreements were missing for 197 employees, incorrect for 97 and not meeting requirements for 40. The report said that agency management agreed with recommendations directed toward those issues.
Previous audits found incorrect locality pay—in some cases with employees being underpaid—at agencies including Energy, Agriculture, HUD, Commerce and the Ex-Im Bank, but also involving only small numbers of employees and also blaming shortcomings in internal processing rather than misconduct.
Assertions that overpayments were widespread were one motivation behind the Trump administration’s return-to-office order.
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