The Statute provides a legal basis for the current federal labor and management relations program and establishes two sources of official time. Official time for, both, collective bargaining and Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA)-related activities, such as negotiations, attendance at impasse proceedings, and participation in proceedings before the FLRA, is provided as a statutory right. Official time for other purposes must be negotiated between the agency and the union in an agreed-upon amount deemed reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest. However, activities that relate to internal union business, such as the solicitation of members or the election of union officials, must be performed when in a non-duty status; that is, not on official time. In a 1979 report, we recommended that OPM (1) clarify its recordkeeping requirements then in effect for capturing time spent on representational activities, and (2) direct agencies to comply with those requirements. Following our report, in 1981, OPM issued Federal Personnel Manual Letter 711-161. The letter stated that, no later than January 1, 1982, federal agencies activate a recordkeeping system to capture official time charges to representational activities. But the letter did not require agencies to report the yearly time charges to OPM, as we had recommended. As a result, OPM never consolidated the amount of time charged government-wide to union activities and has no information on agencies’ compliance with the recordkeeping requirement. When the Federal Personnel Manual was abolished in 1994, all recordkeeping requirements regarding time spent on union activities were rescinded. In a 1997 report accompanying an appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee requested that OPM provide a one-time report on the total hours of official time spent on representational activities, number of employees who used official time, and related costs (salary, office space, equipment, and telephone) covering the first 6 months of calendar year 1998. In response, OPM reported that a total of 23,965 federal employees used approximately 2.2 million hours during the 6- month sample period. OPM estimated the cost of this time at about $48 million. OPM also reported that 946 of these employees (or 4 percent) worked 100 percent of the time in a representational capacity. OPM has prepared reports on official time usage since fiscal year 2002 and most recently for the period covering fiscal year 2012. Seven of 10 selected agencies reported lower official time rates in fiscal year 2013 compared to fiscal year 2006, as shown in table 2 below. Official time rates indicate the number of official time hours expended per BU employee and allow for meaningful comparison of official time usage over time. For seven agencies, declines in official time charges per BU employee ranged from about 30 minutes or less at several agencies to 2- 1/2 fewer hours per BU employee at one agency. The remaining three agencies—including DHS, DOT, and SSA—reported increased official time rates. An analysis of the average annual rate of official time use was somewhat higher but showed a similar pattern for the same seven agencies with annual declines and three agencies with annual increases. Overall, the total number of official time hours charged as reported by the 10 selected agencies was higher in fiscal year 2013 when compared to fiscal year 2006, as shown in table 3 below. In fiscal year 2013, the 10 selected agencies in our review reported that BU employees charged a total of 2,485,717 hours to official time, an increase of 25 percent compared to the 1,991,089 hours these agencies reported for fiscal year 2006. We found that half of the agencies reported using more official time hours in fiscal year 2013 than in fiscal year 2006 (see figure 1 for the interactive graphic, which represents each individual agency’s official time rate and hours reported for fiscal year 2006 through fiscal year 2013). OPM and agencies attributed changes in usage to several reasons. According to OPM, factors that have contributed to the changes in official time use in previous years include: an emphasis by agencies on accurately documenting official time changes in the number of BU employees; changes in the amount of mid-term and term collective bargaining; variation in the use of labor-management forums; and hours. A number of agencies cited similar factors. For example, RRB attributed changes in usage to the age of its CBA with the American Federation of Government Employees labor union, which is almost 30 years old. Thus, the agency has not had any nationwide negotiations during the time period which might have required a large number of official time hours. NSF reported a lower number of charged official time hours in mid-term negotiations (284 to 110), dispute resolution (203 to 93), and general labor-management relations (978 to 691). NSF officials informed us that their official time tally of hours was incomplete for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 because the agency transitioned to a different time and attendance system, which we will explain more fully later in this report. Other agencies cited factors such as increases in the amount of negotiations or general labor-management relations areas impacting changes in use of official time. For example, DOT officials pointed out that the increase in official time charges per BU employee was spent improving labor management relations and internal business processes, and not litigating disputes. They noted that the agency’s spike in official time rate between fiscal years 2006 and 2007 may be related to possible underreporting in fiscal year 2006. This made a subsequent return to better accuracy appear to be a sharp increase in fiscal year 2007. Most of DOT’s increased reporting of official time was also in the general labor- management relations category. The agency reported 66,736 hours in fiscal year 2006 compared to 230,080 hours reported in that category for fiscal year 2013. According to DOT, the agency’s increase since fiscal year 2006 in the use of official time in the general labor-management relations category resulted in turn from increased collaboration between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its unions, primarily the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). NATCA is FAA’s largest BU and accounts for the majority of official time used by FAA’s union representatives. In 2009, FAA and NATCA renegotiated their 2006 CBA. DHS, with the highest percentage increase of official time hours charged, also had the biggest percentage increase of BU employees. DHS reported its largest increases in official time hours in the general labor- management relations category, from 25,785 hours in fiscal year 2006 to 185,509 hours in fiscal year 2013, and also in the mid-term negotiations category, from 3,416 to 11,045. According to DHS, several factors contributed to the agency’s increased use of official time hours during the period. For the first time, the recognition of a BU within the Transportation Security Administration increased the overall DHS number of BU employees by more than 40,000 from fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2012. In addition, DHS officials said that the establishment of labor- management forums contributed to official time usage fluctuations during the period. Agency officials explained that as more forums were established and became more active, the hours expended grew. DHS also cited budget reductions, sequestration, and furloughs as factors that led to increases in the general labor-management relations hours reported, as briefings and meetings with the unions were necessary to keep them informed of how DHS components would address shortfalls, avoid or mitigate planned furloughs, and contingency plans for the potential lapse of future appropriations. In addition, DHS explained that there was also a corresponding increase in mid-term bargaining hours reported as unions exercised their right to negotiate based on the notices they received regarding these matters. Agency officials told us of instances where agencies may have underreported the number of official time hours. Several agencies explained particular internal circumstances that impacted agencies’ ability to accurately record the number of official time hours charged. For example, NSF officials told us that the agency transferred its official time reporting to a different time and attendance system during the middle of fiscal year 2012. Because of the transition, it did not capture all official time charges for parts of fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2013. NSF does not have a mechanism to retroactively collect incomplete official time data for these years. A Commerce official told us that one of its components does not report official time using the same transactional codes as other components use. As a result, the component had more than 24,000 hours of official time for fiscal year 2013 that was not accounted for in EHRI. According to the official, Commerce is negotiating a change in the CBAs with the three affected unions to report official time using the same transactional codes that the other components use. In addition, a recent GAO report found that official time activities at VA were recorded as administrative leave because the agency’s current time and attendance system does not have a code to capture official time separately. VA officials told us that the agency is implementing a new time and attendance system, the Veterans Affairs Time and Attendance System (VATAS), which will capture official time usage. According to a VA official, the agency has not collected official time data through VATAS because of system issues they are addressing. The officials said VA does not have a time frame for when VATAS will be in use department-wide. In addition, we found that some agencies, such as DHS, SSA, and Commerce, vary in how they report hours charged to labor management forum meetings conducted under Executive Order 13522. Executive Order 13522 was designed to establish a cooperative and productive form of labor-management relations but does not specify how agencies should treat labor management forum meetings for time and attendance purposes. Some agencies consider this time as official time and others as duty time. For example, DHS reported that it advises its components that time used in relationship to these meetings is to be included as official time under the general labor management category. On the other hand, we were told by an SSA official that SSA considers time spent on labor management forum meetings as duty time.