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While the text of House bill H.R.1364, the “Official Time Reform Act”, has not yet been released, it is a direct attack on federal unions and their ability to represent workers.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), is intended to amend Title 5 of the United States Code, to limit the use of official time and would exclude it from counting towards an employee’s retirement and pension eligibility. This bill targets the financial security of individual union members and their families, and it is below the dignity of the United States Congress.
Call the Congress switchboard today at 202-224-3121 and tell the operator you want speaker to your representative. Tell them to immediately to stop this unfair attack on federal workers and their families.
House Republicans are attempting to force unnecessary changes to the law and undercut federal employees’ rights in the workplace. For more than 40 years, official time has been an important tool for management and workers to address workplace concerns. Current law explicitly prohibits union activities while on official time, including any internal union business, solicitation of new members, election of union officers and any partisan political issues.
IAM government employees and National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) members currently use official time across the country, as prescribed by specific departments and agencies. Qualifying activity is restricted to government business and is regulated by management, which decides how much official time is reasonable, necessary and valuable to their operations.
No federal employee management or executive organizations support any further restriction on Official Time use.