Workforce
OPM deals with questions about travel reimbursement for teleworkers
Government HR directors are planning the transition out of the pandemic and reviewing guidelines to allow for a hybrid workforce in the long term.
Already, the local wage system was addressed as a policy area that may need new laws or regulations.
The salary system for many civil servants is based on the General Tariff Plan. A percentage increase complements the base salary of many federal offices based on their office location under a system called local payments.
Workers who do not come to the office regularly are classified as teleworkers, as opposed to teleworkers who come to the office at least twice per pay period.
The official “agency” of remote workers is their home or their teleworking center. For teleworkers, this is the location of the agency’s physical offices. An employee’s place of work determines their local pay.
In addition to local pay, an increasingly dispersed workforce is also raising questions about travel rules, Rob Shriver, assistant director of employee services at the Office of Human Resources, said at a GovExec event on July 13.
The question: who pays the bill when remote workers have to roam to the agency’s physical office?
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had moved to a hybrid model long before the pandemic broke out. As of March 2020, around 88% of the agency’s workforce teleworked one to five days a week, said Danette Campbell, director of the agency’s telework programs office.
One of the USPTO’s key best practices is to sometimes bring remote workers to a central location depending on business needs, she said.
“Not just to bring them all in one place, of course, but to make sure that when they return there is an opportunity for longer collaboration, training and networking events,” she said. “Here, too, we have been active in this environment for many years and have used this model.”
Campbell didn’t mention any cost constraints that would result from this practice, but Shriver said concerns were raised with OPM and the General Services Administration about travel rules and remote workers.
For now, Teleworking OPM Guide notes that for employees whose official place of work is their teleworking location, trips to their main place of work are considered “official business” and are subject to travel reimbursement obligations.
If remote workers who are outside of their office’s local pay range need to be asked by the agency to pay for travel expenses, the agency must pay for the travel expenses, Shriver said.
OPM has held working group meetings with stakeholders from and outside the government, including human resources directors from the Human Capital Agency, he said.
“Some agencies have cited this as an obstacle to approving more workers for remote work because of the budgetary implications,” he said. “Of course you can also see the other side of this story – is it fair to say? [employees] for travel expenses on the hook? It is difficult because there may be a teleworker benefit of being able to work from home, but it comes at a cost [that] on the rare occasions they need to get you, you have to cover that. “
Shriver did not say what action OPM will take with respect to travel expenses or local taxes, if any.
“The wage system was not designed for this world, where there may be a significantly higher number of people working remotely than before the pandemic, but it takes that into account,” he said. “The bottom line is that the policy is there to help teleworkers, but there can be some barriers and disincentives. We look at this and work with the stakeholders to see if there should be any changes. “
About the author
Natalie Alms works at FCW for the federal workforce. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University and has written for the Salisbury (NC) Post. Connect with Natalie on Twitter at @AlmsNatalie.
