Following is a portion of a recent Congressional Research Service report on changes enacted late in 2010 to federal employee telework policies, the first steps of which are due to be accomplished soon.
The law amends Part III of Title 5 of the United States Code by adding a new chapter, Chapter 65, on telework.
Definition of Telework
Telework is defined as a work flexibility arrangement under which an employee5 performs the duties and responsibilities of his or her position, and other authorized activities, from an approved worksite other than the location from which the employee would otherwise work.
Executive Agency Telework Policies
Within 180 days (by June 7, 2011) after the enactment of Chapter 65, the head of each executive agency is required to establish a telework policy under which eligible employees would be authorized to telework, determine the eligibility of all employees to participate in telework, and notify all employees of their eligibility. The policy must ensure that telework does not diminish employee performance or agency operations.
Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP) An agency’s telework policy must be incorporated as part of its continuity of operations plans in the event of an emergency. Each executive agency must incorporate telework into its COOP plan. During any period that an executive agency is operating under a COOP plan, that plan supersedes any telework policy.
Telework Managing Officer (TMO) The head of each executive agency is required to designate an employee of the agency as the TMO. The position must be established within the office of the chief human capital officer (CHCO) or a comparable office with similar functions. The TMO must be a senior official who has direct access to the agency head. He or she may be an individual who holds another office or position in the agency.
The TMO will develop policy for and implement the agency’s telework programs; serve as an advisor to the agency’s leadership (including the CHCO) and a resource for managers and employees; and serve as the liaison between the agency and OPM on telework matters. The TMO will perform other duties as assigned by the applicable delegating authority.
Employee Participation in Telework
An employee may not telework if he or she has been officially disciplined for being absent without permission for more than five days in any calendar year; or for violations of subpart G of the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch for viewing, downloading, or exchanging pornography, including child pornography on a federal government computer or while performing official federal government duties. An agency manager and an employee authorized to telework must enter into a written agreement that outlines the specific work arrangement that is agreed to. The agreement is mandatory for any employee to participate in telework. If the employee’s performance does not comply with the written agreement, he or she may not be authorized to telework.
An employee whose official duties require on a daily basis (every work day) direct handling of secure materials determined to be inappropriate for telework by the agency head, or on-site activity that cannot be handled remotely or at an alternate worksite, is not eligible to telework, except in emergency situations, as determined by the agency head.
Training and Monitoring
The head of each executive agency must ensure that employees eligible to telework and managers of employees who telework receive an interactive training program on telework. The agency head also must ensure that an employee has successfully completed the interactive training program before the employee enters into a written telework agreement. An employee may be exempted from the training requirement upon the agency head’s determination that the training would be unnecessary because the employee is already teleworking under an arrangement in effect before the enactment of Chapter 65.
Those employees who telework and those who do not will be treated the same for purposes of periodic appraisals of employee performance; training, rewarding, reassigning, promoting, reducing in grade, retaining, and removing employees; work requirements; or other acts involving the discretion of managers. The agency must consult Office of Personnel Management guidelines on performance management when making determinations on diminished employee performance.
