Comer, Sessions, Perry Lead Probe into Use of ‘Official Time’ for Union Activity by Federal Employees

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas), and Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) are today conducting oversight of the use of “official time” by government employees for union activities. In letters to top officials at 23 federal government agencies, the lawmakers are requesting documents and information related to the use of official time by government employees.

“Given that employees’ official union activities can be conducted when they would otherwise be performing their regular job duties, it is critical that agencies track when and how official time is used. This is especially true given that previous agency disclosures of official time data revealed widespread abuse of the practice. A 2018 investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs found ‘nearly one thousand [federal] employees… spend at least half their working hours as union representatives,’ meaning many employees ‘are being paid for work they were not hired to do without doing work they were hired to do,’” the lawmakers wrote.

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability recently held a hearing with the Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), during which lawmakers sought to bring transparency to federal employees’ use of “official time” to conduct union activities. During the hearing, Acting Director Rob Shriver testified that federal union membership has increased in recent years. The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is seeking more information related to how federal agencies are tracking and measuring the impact of policies including telework, remote work, and union activities on agency performance for American taxpayers.

“Official time abuse is particularly striking when employees dedicate all their working hours to union activity. Cases of 100 percent official time use create conditions for federal employees’ skills to atrophy as they forget how to, or otherwise lose the ability to, perform the jobs they were hired to perform. This risk exists for any employee whose union activities regularly separate them from performing their actual job functions, meaning overuse of official time poses risks for smooth agency operations, efficiency, and quality customer service, among other areas,” the lawmakers continued.

The letters can be found here.