The American Federation of Government Employees has sued the Department of Education over Secretary Betsy DeVos’ effort to limit the amount of time its members can get paid by the government to do union work instead of working for taxpayers, a practice known as “official time.”
The AFGE Council 252 filed an unfair practices complaint against the department on March 12 after the department tried to get the union to accept a new collective bargaining agreement that strictly limited the use of “official time” by union officials, required close reporting of the time used and instituted penalties for abuse of official time. The prior contract allowed official time for a wider range of activities from reviewing documents to “travel necessary to conduct an activity.”
The union argued the proposed limits were unfair. “Congress provided representational time so that the union can carry out its legal duty of fair representation to all those who are covered by the contract, including those who choose not to pay dues. Removing access to this time is like asking the fire department to operate without firetrucks or a firehose,” the union said.
The complaint was filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the entity that oversees federal government unions. A representative of the Education Department could not be reached for comment.
Official time is defined by the federal Office of Personnel Management as “time spent by federal employees performing representational work for a bargaining unit in lieu of their regularly assigned work.” In theory, official time makes it possible for federal employees who are shop stewards in their unions to take brief periods of time off for things like bargaining with management for new contracts. It was first allowed under the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act and is intended as a trade-off for certain limitations put on federal unions, such as prohibitions on striking.
A 2017 report by OPM said Department of Education workers spent a total of 6,728 hours on “official time” in fiscal year 2014. In the previous fiscal year, official time totaled 7,822 worker hours. More recent figures were not available. AFGE Council 252 represents 3,900 department employees. Union membership is not mandatory for department employees.
The department’s proposed contract indicates the Trump administration thinks such amounts were excessive, and the union was abusing the privilege. “In the interest of effective and efficient government as stewards of the American tax payer, abuse of any official time and LWPUA hours used for union representational matters, to include failure to timely and accurately report the time used, will not be tolerated and may result in administrative action against the union officer or representative at the Employer’s discretion,” it said.
AFGE’s statement alleged the department attempted to strong-arm the union into agreeing to the new contract: “Department of Education management told AFGE Council 252 President Claudette Young on Friday, March 9, that it would not negotiate and would instead implement its own terms,” it said.
The proposed collective bargaining included other provisions that made things difficult for the union, such as ending the practice of automatic annual renewals of the dues deductions from department worker paychecks. Under the previous contract, workers had to make a request in writing within a narrow 30-day period if they wanted the practice to stop. The department’s proposed contract would reverse that, requiring the union to get renewed authorization from workers every year.
