Republican leaders on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have written to more than two dozen departments and large agencies, asking for an account of their use of official time, on-the-clock time employees spend on certain union duties.
It’s the latest in a long line of oversight efforts by Republicans on the practice, which is allowed under federal labor law for representational and similar activities, although not for internal union business. Especially controversial has been that some employees spend all of their work time on official time—as is allowed under terms of some contracts.
The letters, from Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and government operations subcommittee chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., ask for identifying information on all employees who used official time in 2014-2015; whether the employee was on official time full-time; their grades, salary rates and duty stations; and a description of agency space provided for union duties, including an accounting of the square footage.
The letters likely presage further hearings and possible proposals on official time. The data largely would replicate information that for many years was in annual reports from OPM. That agency has not produced such data since an October 2014 report that covered fiscal 2012.
