OPM moves to standardize pay and benefits rules
As agencies move to e-Payroll system, OPM wants consistent policies on leave, pay, comp time and temp workers.
The Office of Personnel Management wants to standardize many of the pay, leave and hours of work rules to help agencies migrate to the standardized governmentwide e-Payroll system.
Proposed rules published by OPM in the Federal Register on Jan. 5 include policies for standardizing minimum leave charges, military leave, teleworkers' locality pay, compensatory time for religious observances, time limits on the use of compensatory time, elimination of hybrid work schedules, annual and sick leave, and temporary workers.
OPM will accept comments on the proposed rules until March 7. Agency officials said Wednesday they believe the policies should be finalized within a year.
Donald Winstead, deputy associate director of OPM's Center for Pay and Performance Policy, said the proposed policies are not that dramatic and, for the most part, standardize existing policies that many of the agencies already follow.
"The idea here is to take a look at our regulations and to see what changes we can make to standardize our policies in pay and leave so that the people who process the paychecks and leave and earning statements will have an easier time of doing that," Winstead said.
The proposed rules would require workers not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act to use earned compensatory time within 26 pay periods. Agencies would retain the discretionary authority to provide payment for compensatory time or require its forfeiture. Workers covered by FLSA would receive payment for overtime.
Winstead said the proposal likely to have the most effect on employees would standardize charges for minimum leave time to increments of 6 minutes or 15 minutes. OPM wrote that limiting the charge to two methods will simplify time and attendance recording, and will permit further flexibility in work scheduling for agencies and workers.
The proposed rule also would require workers who take compensatory time off for religious observances to provide documentation for proof of legitimacy. According to Joann Perrini, manager of OPM's Pay and Leave Administration group, agencies will be given the freedom to develop their own policies on how to prove the legitimacy of religious compensatory time off.
Reinforcing a policy that already exists in most agencies, OPM's proposal would allow teleworkers to receive locality pay if they work in a different area than the official work location. A worker scheduled to report at least once a week to a regular work site would not receive this benefit unless the agency made an exception.
Hybrid work schedules, which combine elements of flexible and compressed work schedules, would be eliminated under the rule. According to OPM, employees were trying to pick and choose the benefits they liked under the two programs, which is not allowed by law. Under the new regulation, overtime hours under a flexible work schedule officially must be ordered in advance.
Workers on unpaid military leave will no longer be able to use sick leave under the new rule. Currently, workers on military leave are allowed to use sick leave along with annual leave.
The proposed rule would make Nov. 15 the last day a worker could request leave for the year. Workers would no longer have to maintain 80 hours of sick leave in order to use sick leave. OPM said this would eliminate the need for complicated record-keeping.