Hundreds of federal employees work only for their unions while drawing full salaries and benefits from the taxpayer, a Washington Examiner investigation has found.
The union work at public expense is called official time. The 3.4 million hours government employees spent doing union work cost $155.6 million in 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available.
Federal employees make on average $81,704 annually, compared with the private sector average of $54,995, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
About 17.8 percent of the federal government’s 2.8 million non-postal employees are union members, according to unionstats.com.
The Examiner documented more than 700 federal employees who in 2012 spent at least 1,000 hours doing union work at taxpayers expense. The total includes 558 who spent more than 1,500 hours on official time. A standard work year is 2,080 hours, minus any holidays and vacation, according to the Department of Labor.
Those are low-ball figures. Several of the biggest federal departments were unable to provide even basic information on who is taking official time and which unions are benefitting the most. Among them were the departments of Defense and Justice.
Others, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, could only provide a list of employees who worked full-time on union business, but they had no data on those doing part-time work for their unions. The veterans agency is the biggest user of official time.
Many of those working for the unions at taxpayers’ expense are top-paid federal employees. The Examiner identified 162 individuals who spent at least 1,000 hours on official time while drawing taxpayer-funded annual salaries in excess of $100,000.
The three highest paid are all officers in the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents employees in the Department of Transportation. Each was paid $166,362 in 2012.
The Social Security Administration paid eight judges in excess of $164,000 each to work for their unions instead of deciding cases brought by benefit applicants and relatives.
Other top-paid employees on official time include pharmacists and nurses at VA, scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency and lawyers scattered throughout the federal government.
It’s a waste of taxpayer money, said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sponsor of a bill to limit the practice.
“I just don’t think the federal taxpayers ought to be paying for that,” Coburn said. “That’s what union dues are for. What’s irksome to me is that we are paying someone to be a pharmacist or a nurse, but they’re not doing that. They’re doing union work.”
There are few limits on what employees on official time do for their unions. Lobbying Congress is permitted, and multiple union officials told the Examiner they do lobby on official time, often to persuade Congress to increase their agencies’ budgets.
There also are significant hidden costs, with taxpayers required to foot the bill for union offices, travel and training.
With the taxpayers paying for union personnel and other costs, dues money is freed up for other activities. Some of it goes to buy influence through lobbying and electioneering.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the biggest federal union and the recipient of the most official time disclosed to the Examiner, spends more than $7.6 million annually on political activities, based on the most recent disclosures from the national headquarters and dozens of locals. NATCA spends about $2.6 million.
The unions also control political action committees, which donate more than 90 percent of their money to Democrats.
Efforts in Congress to limit official time have little chance of passing, according to the sponsors of several bills to increase transparency and lower costs.
“The unions have asserted themselves in saying ‘we don’t want this bill moving,’ and so it’s not moving,” said Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla.
