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6/30/10 - Special Union News
GAO Corrects How Overtime Is Paid to PDP and Band I Analysts to Comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act
GAO management is correcting the way in which GAO pays overtime for many employees, including PDP and Band I analysts. To ensure that GAO follows the law regarding overtime pay—particularly regarding the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)—GAO management began an internal review in 2009 to classify the work that GAO employees do. The FLSA specifies minimum wage and overtime provisions for two categories of employees: "exempt" and "non-exempt." Employees classified as "exempt" are not subject to FLSA’s overtime provisions, while employees classified as "non-exempt" are. Specifically, non-exempt employees must be paid overtime, unless that employee chooses to accept compensatory time, while the agency can determine how to pay exempt employees overtime.
Although previously, GAO treated all employees who earned more than a GS-10, step 10 salary for their locality as exempt, GAO has now determined that most Band I Analysts (series 347), both those in the Professional Development Program (PDP) and those who have completed the PDP, should be classified as "non-exempt." This includes traditional analysts (series 347, whether PDP or not); and both "within" and "among" PDP staff in traditional analyst roles (series 347), as well as those who are Financial Auditors (series 511), Information Technology Analysts (series 2210 or 1550), and Social Science Analysts (series 101).
As a result, GAO will make changes to how PDP and Band I analysts will be compensated for overtime pay. One important difference is that when a non-exempt employee works overtime, he or she will be paid for the overtime worked unless that employee chooses to work compensatory time in lieu of overtime. For exempt employees, GAO may choose to provide compensatory time in lieu of overtime when overtime is worked. As a result of this classification correction, any PDP staff and series 347 Band I analysts who currently have any compensatory time in lieu of overtime will have the option of being paid for those hours.
GAO will be sending out notices to all employees providing the status of this FLSA review of positions, and providing further information on how this will affect overtime pay. Affected Band I and PDP employees will receive a separate email from GAO providing more details about their non-exempt status. If you are a series Band I analyst or are a PDP employee and do not receive an email from GAO this week, please email us at gaoanalysts@ifpte.org. Note that GAO is still reviewing standards for other employees, including communications analysts.
For more information about the Fair Labor Standards Act, you may reference the statute at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/29/usc_sup_01_29_10_8.html.
If you have any further questions, contact your Union at gaoanalysts@ifpte.org or look for the updates from GAO through the Notices section of the GAO Intranet.
Addressing Employees’ Concerns About the Transition to Outlook
Your GAO Union is working with management to address employee concerns about the ongoing email migration. GAO management is changing the email application we use from GroupWise to Microsoft Outlook. You may have attended a briefing on the planned migration to Outlook at a staff meeting or seen information on the transition through GAO Notices or on the GAO Intranet. The Union has been receiving many questions and concerns from employees about these changes, particularly regarding the planned changes in policy for email retention and auto-archiving of email.
GAO Management and Union representatives have been meeting to discuss this change over the past several months. Management officials and staff met with Union representatives this week to demonstrate the Outlook email application with DM integration and answer questions. We wanted to let you know what some of the questions are that we’ve been hearing from employees and, subsequently, raising with GAO management. We also wanted to share GAO’s answers with you in this FAQ on the Outlook migration on the GAO Union Website.
Continue to send us your concerns about this email transition, specifically any adverse impacts on your work that you may foresee, so that we can raise them with GAO. We will continue to share what we are learning from GAO management about the transition to Outlook and update this FAQ. Please consider how these policy changes may alter the way you do your work and tell us about it. We’d particularly like to hear your thoughts about any adverse impacts there may be for you as a result of this transition and the accompanying policy changes. We are committed to hearing all of your concerns and presenting them to GAO management. You can email us with your questions at gaoanalysts@ifpte.org.
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