A newly reintroduced House bill (HR-1658) from Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., would further restrict the use of official time–on-the-clock time allowed for certain union-related duties–by barring use of the time to engage in collective bargaining or participate in arbitration on behalf of a union.
Some Republicans have targeted the issue for years, arguing that all working time should be spent on official duties, while Democrats generally have sided with the union view that official time is a long-running provision of law designed to compensate unions for their lack of a closed shop, a situation in which paying dues is not mandatory but the union responsibility to represent all bargaining unit members is.
Prior bills to restrict use of official time have not advanced, although one to merely toughen reporting requirements, including to count how many employees spend all their time on official time, did advance through the House committee level in 2013.
A GAO report issued last year sampled 10 agencies that account for about half of official time usage government-wide and found that nearly 400 worked on union duties full-time. In addition, about another 300 did such work at least half the time.
OPM’s most recent report said that during fiscal 2012, unions represented 1,222,537 non-postal bargaining unit employees, an increase of 1.65 percent compared to fiscal 2011. The number of hours per represented employee fell slightly from 2.82 to 2.81, but was still above the 2.60 range of the prior three years. OPM estimated the cost at $157.2 million.
