Amendment to Limit Federal Employees' Collective Bargaining Rights

June 10, 2014 | H.R. 4745

This amendment would bar the use of funds provided by the bill to pay a federal employee during any period when that employee is using "official time" to represent a union or its bargaining unit employees. The Gingrey Amendment would serve no purpose but to erode collective bargaining rights for civil service federal employees at greater cost to American taxpayers. Union representation for employees working their way through administrative procedures is a cost-effective process for administrating and adjudicating agency policies. The alternative to official time is for government agencies to needlessly pay for costly third party attorney and arbitrator fees. Using this time for internal union business is strictly prohibited by law: under current law, official time may not be used to solicit membership, conduct internal union meetings, elect union officers, or engage in partisan political activities. The notion that official time is used for these purposes is blatantly false. The amendment was rejected.