Opinion ID: 510615
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Work Schedules Act

Text: 6 In 1978, having found that trends in the usage of 4-day weeks, flexible hours, and other variations in the workday and workweek in the private sector appear to show sufficient promise to warrant ... experimentation by the federal government, Congress authorized federal agencies to experiment with flexible and compressed work schedules (referred to collectively as alternative work schedules) over a three-year period. Work Schedules Act of 1978, Pub.L. No. 95-390, 92 Stat. 755 (codified as amended at 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6101 note (1982)). Compressed schedules usually involve a workweek of four 10-hour days or a fortnight of eight 9-hour days and one 8-hour day. Employees with flexible schedules work five 8-hour days per week, but may stagger their arrival and departure times in order to avoid rush hour traffic or to accommodate other personal preferences. 7 Although Congress found, at the end of the test period, that improper use of alternative work schedules did have some serious repercussions, including increased costs and decreased productivity, it concluded that [t]he benefits of these schedules to employees were overwhelming, and that [t]he benefits of these schedules to government, when utilized in a proper fashion, were also significant. S.Rep. No. 365, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. 4 (1982), reprinted in 1982 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 565, 566. Accordingly, in 1982 Congress passed the Schedules Act, which extended the program, and in 1985 made it permanent. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6101 note (Supp. IV 1986). 8 The Schedules Act provides that if the employees of an agency are represented by an exclusive bargaining representative, i.e., a union, then the agency must bargain with it over the establishment or the termination of any alternative work schedule. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6130(a) (1982). If there is no union, the agency cannot impose a compressed work schedule (although it may apparently impose a flexible schedule) without the approval of a majority of the affected employees. Id. at Sec. 6127(b)(1). If the union proposes a compressed schedule that the agency believes will affect it adversely, and the parties bargain to impasse over the issue, then the dispute is referred to the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), which is required to impose the union's proposed schedule unless the agency shows that it would have an adverse impact on the agency's productivity, output, or costs. Id. at Sec. 6131.