Federal employees spent fewer official hours on
union-related activity in fiscal 2003, according to a
report from the Office of Personnel Management.
It said the amount of time feds serving as labor officials
spent conducting union business dropped four percent while
bargaining unit employees spent three percent less time,
following an increase of ten percent from 1998 to 2002
throughout the federal government.
The 2002 data prompted OPM to increase reporting
requirements, which it has done again this year, and
agencies now must report on the use of official time —
defined as authorized, paid time off from assigned
government duties to represent unions and bargaining unit
employees — according to the following four categories:
“prepare and negotiate a basic collective bargaining
agreement; bargain over issues raised during the life of an
agreement; represent bargaining unit employees in dispute
resolution procedures; attend meetings between labor and
management officials, or for labor relations training and
participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.”
Director Kay Coles James said, “I believe the annual official
time surveys and OPM’s reports on their findings, as well as
related official-time studies and activities we have
initiated, work to support greater accountability to the
taxpayer in this important area of labor-management relations.”
