OPM clarifies policies affecting teleworkers’ pay

The Office of Personnel Management recently published additional information intended to help federal agencies sort out what qualifies as the official work site for employees who spend most of their time away from the office. The designation can make a difference in pay.

Advocates of telework praised OPM's attempt to clarify its policies, but said the policies themselves may need to change.

Certain location-based pay entitlements, such as locality pay, are tied to official work sites. OPM therefore has required employees, including teleworkers, to report to their official duty stations at least once a week.

This has been required since locality pay was introduced in 1994, but the number of allowable exceptions is growing. The personnel agency's mid-December document provides new examples of exceptions.

Nancy Kichak, associate director for strategic human resources policy at OPM, said the need for the document became evident when an agency reported that it lacked sufficient guidance to determine how to pay one of its employees. She said the policy clarifications will be helpful for employees who telework from places that are in a different locality pay area than their agency's offices.

"Telework is something that is becoming more and more important," Kichak said. "There just needs to be some rule so that there is a uniform application of the policy."

One of the exceptions to the once-a-week rule provided as an example is for emergency situations, such as severe weather or pandemic health crises. Another is for teleworking employees who are away from the area on extended official travel. In addition, teleworkers whose work location varies on a daily basis do not have to report to their official worksite each week, so long as they are working within the same geographic area.

Previously published examples of exceptions to the once-a-week rule applied to employees recovering from an injury or medical condition, and those helping with a family member's recovery.

William Mularie, chief executive officer of the Telework Consortium of Herndon, Va., said the new OPM document helps clarify the locality pay policy for teleworkers who live in remote locations but earn higher salaries because their official work sites are based in areas with higher locality pay. But the requirement that teleworkers who don't fall under the exceptions "return to home base" one day a week remains an issue, Mularie said.

"Perhaps they could give them ankle bracelets rather than making them return at their own expense," he said.

The Patent and Trademark Office, which has one of the most extensive teleworking programs in the government, requires participants to report to the agency's offices for at least one hour each week. This allows their official duty station to remain at the agency's Alexandria, Va., headquarters.

Under current rules, if PTO changed the teleworking employees' official work sites to their homes, it would be required under travel regulations to compensate them for time and travel expenses when they visit the main office for official events such as meetings or training.

Robert Budens, president of the Patent Office Professional Association, said the once-a-week requirement is "definitely a thorn in everybody's side." He has expressed concerns over the telework program, but said Wednesday PTO employees are finding it fairly successful.

"People are getting comfortable with the program," Budens said. "There are definitely groups of people that want nothing to do with hoteling and don't want to have work at home. And there is a group of people who will do anything for it and love it."

Budens said the agency has tried to get around the once-a-week requirement, but that would likely require a change in the regulations.

PTO officials have said they were working with OPM to eliminate the requirement. In a July 2005 letter to then-OPM Deputy Associate Director for Pay and Performance Policy Donald Winstead, PTO Chief Administrative Officer Vickers Meadows stated that the mandate is arbitrary and costly.

Jerry Mikowicz, the current OPM deputy associate director for pay and leave administration, and Kichak, said they have not discussed the policy with PTO officials and have not received an official request seeking a change or an exception to policy.