OPM says paying union reps is a good deal

The Office of Personnel Management says agencies spent $48 million on salaries for federal employees who spent their time on union activities during the first half of 1998-and argues it was money well spent.

All told, 23,965 employees used 2,171,774 hours of official time to conduct union business during the first six months of this year, according to OPM's November report to Congress on official time.

The Federal Labor-Management Relations Statute (5 U.S.C. Chapter 71) requires agencies to allow employees to use a reasonable amount of official time for union business. OPM's report suggests that the benefits of official time outweigh the costs.

Agencies told OPM that official time improves labor-management relations, contributes to improved operations, helps resolve workplace disputes and can improve employee morale.

The Army, for example, reduced employee grievances by 60 percent from 1992 to 1997, in part because union representatives used official time to improve labor-management cooperation. The Veterans Affairs Department's medical center in Phoenix, Ariz., reduced the annual turnover rate for nurses from 28.8 percent to 13.4 percent by working with union representatives during official time.

"The use of official time for early or predecisional involvement by union representatives and bargaining unit employees can lead to quicker implementation of agency initiatives without potentially time-consuming and disruptive formal negotiations," OPM said.

Despite the benefits of official time, agencies noted that the use of official time places an administrative burden on managers. Managers must process requests for official time, track time used and juggle assignments and schedules. Managers must also make sure union representatives are using official time for approved activities.

"Managers must take the use of official time into consideration when making work assignments," OPM said. "This consideration can result in an unequal distribution of work among available personnel."

Agencies also told OPM that managers and union officials sometimes disagree on approval of official time requests and on whether official time has been appropriately used. Employees can file unfair labor practice charges or grievances against managers over disagreements about official time use.

Critics of official time charge that employees waste taxpayer money when they are paid by Uncle Sam to do union work. In July, Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., chairman of the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, held three days of hearings reviewing official time use at the Social Security Administration. Rep. Dan Miller, R-Fla., introduced a bill this year that would have barred employees from all union work on official time except representing fellow bargaining unit members during grievance proceedings and representing employees during labor-management meetings. The bill never made it to the House floor for a vote.