Does it?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/26/taxpayers-foot-bill-for-union-work-lawmakers-seek-changes/[/URL]
It's called "official time," and it was sanctioned into law by Congress in 1978. Lawmakers voted to allow federal employees who are union members to spend part of their day addressing union issues. The reason behind the law: Federal employees are not required to join a union even if they are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The Civil Service Reform Act was designed to make up the financial gap of unions having to represent employees who did not pay dues, by allowing federal workers to "volunteer" time during their working hours to address grievances, work on collective bargaining and deal with other issues.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, in 2012 (the most recent year there are statistics for) federal workers spent 3.4 million man-hours on union issues and not the work they were hired for. OPM estimates the cost to taxpayers was more than $157 million.
What's more, at two government agencies that would seem least able to afford a loss of manpower -- the Veterans Affairs Department and IRS -- hundreds of workers spent 100 percent of their time doing union work. At the VA, 259 employees worked solely on union issues. At the IRS -- which only disclosed their statistics when the National Review sent them a Freedom of Information Act request -- the number was 201.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/26/taxpayers-foot-bill-for-union-work-lawmakers-seek-changes/[/URL]
It's called "official time," and it was sanctioned into law by Congress in 1978. Lawmakers voted to allow federal employees who are union members to spend part of their day addressing union issues. The reason behind the law: Federal employees are not required to join a union even if they are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The Civil Service Reform Act was designed to make up the financial gap of unions having to represent employees who did not pay dues, by allowing federal workers to "volunteer" time during their working hours to address grievances, work on collective bargaining and deal with other issues.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, in 2012 (the most recent year there are statistics for) federal workers spent 3.4 million man-hours on union issues and not the work they were hired for. OPM estimates the cost to taxpayers was more than $157 million.
What's more, at two government agencies that would seem least able to afford a loss of manpower -- the Veterans Affairs Department and IRS -- hundreds of workers spent 100 percent of their time doing union work. At the VA, 259 employees worked solely on union issues. At the IRS -- which only disclosed their statistics when the National Review sent them a Freedom of Information Act request -- the number was 201.
