From Federal News Radio comes the jaw-dropping reality of how much time federal workers spend on union activities.
“The Office of Personnel Management emphasizes that labor and management have a shared responsibility to ensure that official time is authorized and used appropriately,” the agency stated in the report released Friday. “OPM expects labor and management to develop sensible arrangements for official time that meet the needs and expectations of agencies, employees and the ultimate customers-the American people.”
Overall, employees spent 3,395,187 hours working on union activities in 2011, up from 3,096,018 in 2010. Total official time hours increased in each of the first four years during the Obama administration.
The more than 3.3 million hours spent on union work was the highest since 2004, when employees spent more than 3.8 million hours on union activities while on the job.
