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ORD Managers Meeting HR Issues

ORD Managers Meeting HR Issues. Briefing & Discussion November 2008. Purpose. Share Current Status > Completed HR Policies for FY 08 > Performance Management – PARS > Alternate Work Schedules Questions & Answers. Completed or in Final Review HR Policies for FY 08.

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ORD Managers Meeting HR Issues

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  1. ORD Managers MeetingHR Issues Briefing & Discussion November 2008

  2. Purpose • Share Current Status > Completed HR Policies for FY 08 > Performance Management – PARS > Alternate Work Schedules • Questions & Answers

  3. Completed or in Final Review HR Policies for FY 08 • Reasonable Accommodation Order • Status: Completed and in effect • Summary: Assigns responsibility for requesting and providing reasonable accommodations for EPA employees and applicants with disabilities. Revision establishes a HQ Local Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator (LORAC’s)

  4. Completed or in Final Review Policies for FY 08 • Student Career Experience Program (SCEP) Guidance and Brochure • Status: > Guidance—Completed and in effect > Brochure---Published and distributed • Summary: Clarifies the proper use of the SCEP appointing authority.

  5. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Job Analysis • Status: Completed and in effect • Summary: Clarifies that job analysis is a basic requirement of Agency employment practices. Proper job analysis identifies: the basic duties of the position; the knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform the duties; and the factor that are important in evaluating candidates.

  6. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • E-Verify • Status: Completed and in effect • Summary: Implements the use of the joint DHS/SSA operated system to verify employment eligibility for all newly-hired employees.

  7. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Quality Assurance in the Hiring Process • Status: Completed and in effect • Summary: Highlights the legal and regulatory procedures that servicing HR offices must follow in the hiring process and the procedures that managers and supervisors should use to ensure quality. Also, in order to prevent an applicant from gaining favorable consideration during the hiring process based on bogus degrees or degrees obtained from unaccredited institutions, the HR specialist must verify the legitimacy of the degree.

  8. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Time-In-Grade • Status: In final review • Summary: Outlines the Agency’s policy concerning time-in-grade restrictions for Competitive Service positions. This revision rescinds previous EPA-specific policy that extended time-in-grade promotion restrictions to employees serving on Excepted Service appointments (those for which the candidate is not required to compete).

  9. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Employment of Relatives • Status: In issue resolution phase of the Directives Clearance Review (DCR) Process • Summary: Updates the Agency’s policy regarding the employment of relatives. Relatives shall not be selected, appointed, or assigned to a position in the Agency in which one relative may directly or indirectly control or influence the work or employment of the other relative, or the affairs of the organization in which the other relative is employed.

  10. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Area of Consideration Under the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) • Status: Completed and in effect • Summary: The MSPB rules that any individual eligible under the VEOA, regardless of where he or she is located, may compete for a vacancy whenever an agency accepts applications from outside of its own workforce. Thus, any specified area of consideration limitation would not apply to a VEOA-eligible candidate.

  11. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Telework Policy • Status: In final review • Summary: This policy governs the use of telework in EPA; it will replace the 1997 Flexiplace Policy.

  12. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Emergency Telework Policy • Status: In final review • Summary: This is a new policy that addresses the use of telework during emergency situations such as a pandemic health crisis.

  13. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 K) Telework Time Reporting Code Bulletin • Status: In final review • Summary: New Time Reporting Codes (TRC’s) for Telework were implemented by OCFO in early 2007, but the codes are not being used in a uniform manner to document Flexiplace hour categories. This bulletin explains proper use of the codes to all employees.

  14. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 L) Pandemic and Emergency Human Capital Planning Reference Guide • Status: In final review • Summary: This new document is a reference guide to be a basic resource document for managers and supervisors to provide them with information and answers about HR aspects that they may confront during a pandemic health crisis.

  15. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Student Loan Repayment Program Plan and Brochure • Status: Completed and in effect • Summary: In 2007, the EPA SLR Plan was revised to incorporate the new regulatory maximums---from $6,000 per annum to $10,000 and from $40,000 per career to $60,000. • The brochure was published in the summer of 2008 to inform supervisors of the overall change.

  16. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Pay Limitations---Delegation of Authority to Declare Non-natural Disaster Emergencies • Status: Completed and in effect • Summary: Prior to this redelegation, DA’s and RA’s had the authority to declare natural disaster emergencies in order that exceptions could be made to the biweekly maximum earnings limitation for employees working overtime in response to the emergency. However, they did not have the authority to declare non-natural disaster emergencies for the same purpose. This redelegation now gives DA’s and RA’s the authority to declare disaster emergencies for both natural and non-natural occurrances.

  17. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Agency Order on Authorization for the Performance of and Payment for Duty Involving Physical Hardship or Hazard • Status: In final review • Summary: Revision of the 2004 Agency Order to: > Incorporate National Incident Management System (NIMS) procedures for multi-agency and multi-region responses to major emergencies > Clarify process participant roles > Add scenario examples > Add a process function flow chart

  18. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Travel Compensatory Time Off (TCTO) Final Agency Policy • Status: In final review • Summary: An interim agency policy was implemented in 2006 using a manual tracking method. This permanent policy replaces the interim policy, incorporating: > “Lessons learned” from the interim policy > LER-Union agreement > Implementation of PeoplePlus automated tracking codes and input (to be activated upon issuance of the signed policy.

  19. Completed or in Final Policies for FY 08 • Professional Liability Insurance Premium Reimbursement Program • Status: Completed and in effect • Summary: This establishes the policy and procedures for qualified employees to obtain partial reimbursement for professional liability insurance premiums. This was revised August 20, 2008 at the request of the AO. Qualified employees may apply for reimbursement for premiums at any time during the current fiscal year in which they pay their yearly premium.

  20. Performance ManagementPARS Background • Since September 2005, EPA has implemented a new 5-tier performance management system. • Beginning in October 2008, EPA has moved to a fiscal year performance management schedule. – GS/GM and SES Performance Cycles Aligned

  21. Performance ManagementPARS Update • Major Future Policy Issues or Decisions • Fate of PARS in New Administration • PARS Policy • A workgroup (management, unions, other stakeholders) is being convened

  22. Alternate Work SchedulesOverview • The authority allowing adoption of Alternative Work Schedules (AWS) came into existence in 1983. • AWS’s include two distinct categories > Compressed Work Schedules (CWS) > Flexible Work Schedules (FWS) • The terms Alternative, Compressed and Flexible are not synonymous. AWS is the umbrella, but CWS’s & FWS’s are separate under it.

  23. Alternate Work SchedulesPurpose or Intent of AWS’s AWS’s are Federal work schedule options that are aimed at: • Improving employee morale and efficiency • Reducing unprogrammed employee time off • Reducing employee commuting requirements and improving commuting conditions

  24. Alternate Work SchedulesStatus in EPA • Agencies may adopt no, some or all of the OPM devised AWS “modules”. • Because adoption of AWS’s is negotiable, various modules have been adopted at various EPA locations, some only with Bargaining Unit Agreements. • Presently, only one AWS has been adopted Agency-wide---the 5-4/9 CWS. • Although they both come under the AWS umbrella, CWS’s & FWS’s may not be hybridized (combined or tailored to reduce differences in regulation).

  25. Alternate Work SchedulesHistory in EPA • Pilot FWS’s were adopted by EPA in 1979. • The 5-4/9 CWS module was adopted in EPA both in pilot and as permanent in 1989. • Certain other modules have been adopted in EPA at certain locations since. • In recent years, NTEU and AFGE have adopted the 4-10 CWS and the Flexitour FWS nation-wide for EPA.

  26. Alternate Work SchedulesMain Distinction Between CWS’s & FWS’s • CWS are “fixed” work schedules; they cannot be changed by the employee. The employee must obtain supervisory PRIOR permission to deviate or alter. • All FWS’s must include some provision by which the employee is give some authority to make a schedule change without supervisory permission (although the supervisor must be notified). -

  27. Alternate Work SchedulesCWS Definition & Modules Definition: An AWS in which the employee’s basic 80-hour biweekly schedule is completed in less than ten work days. • In EPA, includes 5-4/9 CWS Module • In EPA, includes 4-10 CWS Module

  28. Alternate Work SchedulesFWS Definition & Modules Definition: An AWS in which the employee is given some latitude to make a change or changes in the employee’s work schedule without supervisory approval. • In EPA, FWS Flexitour Module • In EPA, FWS Maxiflex Module • In EPA, the EPA Maxitour Module

  29. Alternate Work Schedules5-4/9 CWS Module • In each pay period, the employee works eight (8) nine-hour days and one (1) eight-hour day. • The employee has one additional non-duty day per pay period, called the compressed day off (CDO). • The CDO cannot be split into half-days. • Overtime pay is not earned until the employee works beyond the scheduled CWS daily tour of duty, or more than 80 hours in a pay period.

  30. Alternate Work Schedules4-10 CWS Module • The employee works four ten-hour days per week and eight in a pay period. • The employee has an additional non-duty day per week, two per pay period. • Overtime is not earned until the employee works hours beyond the CWS daily tour of duty or more than 80 hours in a pay period.

  31. Alternate Work SchedulesCompressed Days Off • CDO’s are additional (to the weekend) SCHEDULED non-duty days in a CWS. • Since CDO’s are scheduled and not “earned” days, the CDO may be on the first day of the pay period. • A 5/4-9 CWS may have only one, and a 4-10 CWS may have only two CDO’s per pay period. • Employees may request temporary rescheduling of their CDO with their supervisor. • CDO’s may not be changed by the supervisor merely to deprive an employee of a three-or-more day hiatus. • Employees are not entitled to a rescheduling of a CDO merely to create a three-or more day hiatus.

  32. Alternate Work SchedulesFWS Flexitour Module • The employee works eight (8) hours per day, five days per week. • Within a designated range, the employee may alter the tour of duty starting time at an agency- or collective bargaining agreement-designated interval or increment (annually, semi-annually, quarterly, monthly, by pay period, or weekly). • Credit hours may be earned. • The employee may work regular discretionary hours in the night zone with no entitlement to night pay, as long as management permits the employee eight regular hours during the day zone. • The employee must work during designated core hours, unless on approved absence or leave.

  33. Alternate Work SchedulesFWS Maxiflex Module • The employee may alter the length of the daily tour of duty or the weekly tour of duty. • The employee works eight (8) hours per day for ten days per pay period • The employee may work credit hours. • The employee must work designated core hours, unless on approved absence or leave.

  34. Alternate Work SchedulesFWS Maxiflex w/4-10 & 5-4/9 Options • If the Agency or the CBA relaxes the core hour requirement, the employee may accomplish the 80-hour regular tour of duty per pay period in less than ten days. • The employee may adopt a FWS Maxiflex 5-4/9 or FWS Maxiflex 4-10, that mimics the comparable CWS, but still has FWS compensation distinctions (later slide). • At least one hour of regular work must be scheduled in each workweek of the pay period.

  35. Alternate Work SchedulesEPA-Specific FWS Maxitour Module • Agencies may tailor existing FWS modules to their own needs, or develop their own. • In order to allow some CWS employees to work discretionary hours in the night pay zone, in 2004 EPA adopted a modified Flexitour Module with relaxed core hours, a provision borrowed from the Maxiflex module. • This was available only on a “grandfathered” basis. • Called by EPA Maxitour, it allowed some CWS employees to volunteer to move to the FWS.

  36. Alternate Work SchedulesFWS Credit Hour Option • The Agency or CBA’s may allow any FWS implementation to include the credit hour option. • Credit hours are not an entitlement; the agency does not have to adopt them. • Credit hours may not be permitted with any work schedules other than FWS’s. • Some discretionary aspects of credit hours may vary from region to region or from CBA to CBA. • Supervisory approval is required to schedule the working of credit hours. • No more than 24 credit hours may be carried from one pay period to the next.

  37. Alternate Work SchedulesAWS’s and Holidays • When an AWS employee is relieved from work on a Federal holiday, there is a difference between those on a CWS and those on a FWS. • The CWS employee is paid for all regularly scheduled hours, whether 8, 9 or 10. • The FWS employee may be paid for no more than eight (8) regular hours on a holiday • Therefore, FWS employees scheduled for 9 or 10 regular hours on a holiday must reschedule and work those hours on another day in the pay period. • If there is more than one holiday in a pay period, there may be additional hours that must be shifted by the FWS employee.

  38. Alternate Work SchedulesCDO’s & In-Lieu-of Holidays • When one of the ten (10) Federal holidays falls on an AWS employee’s CDO or scheduled non-duty day, the employee is entitled to an in-lieu-of holiday. • The CDO or scheduled non-duty day does not change---it is the holiday for the employee that moves to another day. • The in-lieu-of holiday is the employee’s immediately PRECEDING scheduled duty day. • If the holiday falls on a Sunday, the in-lieu-of holiday moves the employee’s immediately FOLLOWING scheduled duty day. • Since it is the holiday that moves, it does not matter if there is more than one holiday in a pay period.

  39. Alternate Work SchedulesCurrent Developments • Following the NTEU national agreement, AFGE has recently adopted the 4-10 CWS module and the FWS Flexitour module. • OHR HRPD is developing a plan to adopt the 4-10 CWS for non-bargaining unit employees agency-wide.

  40. Alternate Work SchedulesFuture • Since AWS’s are both discretionary on the part of the Agency, and negotiable relative to the unions, administration of them in EPA cannot be completely centralized. • Future developments depend on subsequent CBA negotiations or management initiatives. • Presently there is no agency-wide management expansion proposal, but consideration is being given to adopting the 4-10 CWS agency-wide.

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