Today, in part in response to feedback from EPA union representatives including NTEU Chapter 280, EPA's Office of Mission Support (OMS) announced that it has waived several of the existing limitations on flexible work schedules to increase the options available to EPA employees working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Read MorePeoplePlus Update Improving Tracking of Credit Hours
The following is an update from EPA on improvements to PeoplePlus, Release 9, that allow employees on more kinds of schedules to track credit hours more accurately and easily. NTEU was actively involved in pushing the agency to make these important changes to improve employees’ ability to earn and record credit hours.
“As requested during the focus group discussions following the implementation of PeoplePlus 9.2, the agency was taking necessary steps to address concerns over the recording of credit hours. Please be advised that an update was made to PeoplePlus, Release 9. The release allows all employees on flexible schedules, including the Maxiflex schedule, to record earned credit hours daily in PeoplePlus, as opposed to recording earned credit hours only after fulfilling their biweekly work hour requirement.”
Read MoreUnion Files Grievance Challenging Wasteful Timekeeping System
The EPA Inspector General investigates fraud, waste, and abuse, and defines "waste" as "extravagant, careless or needless expenditure of government funds, or the consumption of government property that results from deficient practices, systems, controls or decisions." The Office of Chief Financial Officer's roll-out of the latest PeoplePlus "upgrade" certainly qualifies. This new system caused thousands of wasted employee hours to accomplish what was previously being done in only a few minutes.
Our informal surveys of employees revealed dozens of hours of wasted time per employee just trying to accurately input time. We learned that many employees on flexible schedules were taking up to two hours to get time certified every two weeks. Assuming 20% of employees are on flexible schedules, that is approximately 5,800 wasted hours each pay period.....
Read MoreMaxiflex!
Frequently employees ask what they get for their dues. They get a lot.
NTEU and its predecessor unions negotiated compressed and flexible schedules, part-time-employment flexibility, and many other workplace benefits. We take many of these benefits for granted now, not remembering that they’ve been hard-fought at the negotiating table by unions, with the agency frequently opposing these improvements. One those improvements are implemented, however, many managers find they love them as much or more than their employees.
If you are a dues-paying member, you learned back in January that NTEU Chapter 280, along with AFGE Local 3331, successfully negotiated a version of the MaxiFlex schedule with EPA headquarters management. The Headquarters Maxiflex Pilot Program agreement was signed on January 24, 2017, and is supposed to be implemented soon, we're told.....
Read MoreDaily Flexible Schedule
Have you ever gotten delayed coming into work? Did that stress you out because you were concerned that people were counting how many times you were late? Have you ever wanted flexibility to shift your schedule on a day-to-day basis without supervisor approval to handle child-care responsibilities, errands, or just because you like to vary things?
The Collective Bargaining Agreement approved last year includes a new schedule option called the Daily Flexible Schedule. Features include....
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