Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Ben Cline pushing to block government workers from union activities on official time
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Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., are pushing a proposal that seeks to block government workers from engaging in union-related activities on official time.
“Any activities performed by an employee relating to the business of a labor organization shall be performed during the time the employee is in a non-duty status,” according to the text of the proposed “No Union Time on the Taxpayer’s Dime Act.”
Under current U.S. law, it is possible for government workers to engage in union activity on official time.
Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Ben Cline push measure to block government employees from doing union-related activities on official time. (Left: TING SHEN/AFP via Getty Images; Right: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The law stipulates, “Any employee representing an exclusive representative in the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement under this chapter shall be authorized official time for such purposes, including attendance at impasse proceeding, during the time the employee otherwise would be in a duty status.”
“Any activities performed by any employee relating to the internal business of a labor organization (including the solicitation of membership, elections of labor organization officials, and collection of dues) shall be performed during the time the employee is in a non-duty status,” the law also states.
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An Office of Personnel Management report indicates that taxpayer-funded union time (TFUT) cost millions of dollars during fiscal year 2019.
“Agencies reported that, during FY 2019, bargaining unit employees spent a total of 2,606,390 hours performing representational duties on TFUT,” the report stated. “The estimated total payroll costs, salary and benefits, for employees who used TFUT hours in FY 2019 were $134,987,041.47.”
That report indicates that, “‘Official time,’ as authorized by 5 U.S.C. § 7131, is paid time spent by Federal employees performing representational work for a bargaining unit in lieu of their regularly assigned work. In other words, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has equated official time to be the same as work time or hours of work.”
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“Taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for federal employees to conduct union business instead of fulfilling their official duties,” Rep. Cline said, according to press releases. “Ending ‘official time’ is a commonsense step to ensure taxpayer dollars are used responsibly and to increase accountability across the federal workforce. Public funds should serve the American people, not private union interests.”
