Agencies turn in telecommuting reports

Reports outlining how federal agencies will promote telecommuting to their employees are due to the Office of Personnel Management Monday. In a Feb. 9 memo to department and agency heads, OPM Acting Director Stephen Cohen instructed agencies to identify positions that lend themselves to telecommuting and offer employees in those jobs the option of working from home or at a telecommuting center. Agencies were supposed to report on their telecommuting practices by April 2, but the deadline was extended to April 16. The reports will be used to determine how many federal employees telecommute. An OPM official said some agencies have already submitted their reports, but declined to name those agencies. Agencies must submit their reports to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation by May 11, the spokesman said. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., has been a strong supporter of telecommuting for federal employees. Wolf added language setting telecommuting goals to the fiscal 2001 Transportation appropriations bill. Earlier this year, Wolf pushed OPM to require federal managers to develop viable telecommuting options, rather than simply meet the law's minimum requirement of having a telecommuting policy in place. The 2001 Transportation appropriations measure (PL 106-346), which became law in October 2000, requires federal agencies to establish policies allowing eligible employees to telecommute "to the maximum extent possible without diminishing employee performance." The law also requires OPM to ensure that 25 percent of the federal workforce is participating in telecommuting programs at least part of the time by the end of this month. OPM is required to ensure that an additional 25 percent of the workforce is telecommuting part of the time each year thereafter. In March, OPM sponsored a seminar to help facilitate telecommuting arrangements in the federal workplace. Members of the Interagency Telework Issues Working Group clarified telecommuting policies, and several OPM employees provided first-hand accounts of their telecommuting arrangements. The telework group recently published progress reports on telecommuting as it relates to human resources management, work site health and safety and tax deductions.