MANAGERS
Flexible Work Arrangements
Flexible Work Schedules (FWS)
FWS consist of workdays with core hours and flexible hours. Core hours are the designated period of the day when all employees must be at work. Flexible hours are the part of the workday employees may (within limits or "bands") choose their time of arrival and departure.
FWS are voluntary and subject to approval of the supervisor or manager.
Various types of FWS arrangements provide different degrees of flexibility: :
- Flexitour is a schedule in which an employee is allowed to select starting and stopping times within the flexible hours. Once selected, the hours are fixed until the agency provides the opportunity to select different starting and stopping hours.
- A gliding schedule is a schedule in which a full-time employee has a basic work requirement of 8 hours in each day and 40 hours in each week. The employee may select a starting and stopping time each day and may change starting and stopping times daily within the established flexible hours.
- A variable day schedule is a work schedule containing core hours on each workday in the week in which a full-time employee has a basic work requirement of 40 hours in each week of a biweekly pay period. However, the employee may vary the number of hours on a given workday within the limits established for the organization.
- A variable workweek schedule is a work schedule containing core hours on each workday in the biweekly pay period in which a full-time employee has a basic work requirement of 80 hours for the biweekly pay period. The employee may vary the number of hours worked on a given workday or the number of hours each week within the limits established for the organization.
- A maxiflex schedule is a work schedule that contains core hours on fewer than 10 workdays in the biweekly pay period in which a full-time employee has a basic work requirement of 80 hours for the biweekly pay period. The employee may vary the number of hours worked on a given workday or the number of hours each week within the limits established for the organization.
The following provisions apply to using credit hours under an FWS program:
- Credit hours are any hours within an FWS that are in excess of an employee's basic work requirement (e.g., 40 hours a week) which the employee elects to work to vary the length of a workweek or a workday.
- OPM regulations prohibit SES members from accumulating credit hours under AWS programs (5 CFR 610.408.)
- An employee who is not a member of the SES may request compensatory time off in lieu of payment for irregular or occasional overtime work or regularly scheduled overtime work (5 U.S.C. 6123(a)(1)).
- The law prohibits carrying over more than 24 credit hours from one pay period to the next (5 U.S.C. 6126.)
Premium pay for night work generally is not paid to a General Schedule (GS) employee solely because the employee elects to work credit hours, or elects a time of arrival or departure, at a time when night pay is authorized.
Agencies must pay night pay for all designated core hours worked between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. and for any regularly scheduled overtime work between those hours.
A full-time FWS employee is limited to 8 hours of basic pay on holidays.
A part-time FWS employee is entitled to basic pay for the number of hours scheduled for the holiday, not to exceed 8 hours (5 U.S.C. 6124).
If an Executive order is issued granting a "half-day" holiday, full-time FWS employees are entitled to basic pay for the last half of their "basic work requirement" (i.e., non-overtime hours) on that day, not to exceed 4 hours.
A full-time FWS employee earns Sunday premium pay for an entire non-overtime regularly scheduled tour of duty (not to exceed 8 hours) that begins or ends on Sunday. Sunday premium pay may not be paid for periods of nonwork, including leave, holidays, and excused absence.
Compressed Work Schedules (CWS)
Compressed Work Schedules (CWS) are fixed work schedules that allow full-time employees to complete the basic 80-hour biweekly work requirement in less than 10 workdays, subject to the following provisions:
- For employees in a bargaining unit: The agency must successfully negotiate a CWS program with the union for a represented group of employees prior to implementation (5 U.S.C. 6130.)
- For employees not in a bargaining unit: The agency must secure a favorable vote from the majority of employees in the affected group before implementing a CWS program (5 U.S.C. 6127(b)(1))
- Credit hours are not permitted under a CWS program.
- An employee on a CWS may request compensatory time off only for the performance of irregular or occasional overtime work.
- Compensatory time off may not be approved for any member of the Senior Executive Service (SES.)
- The normal premium pay rules apply for night pay. See 5 CFR 550.121 and 122 for GS employees and 5 CFR 532.505 for prevailing rate (wage) employees.
- An employee normally is excused from work and entitled to basic pay for the number of hours of his or her CWS on a holiday.
- If the President issues an Executive order granting a "half-day" holiday, full-time CWS employees are normally excused from work during the last half of their "basic work requirement" (i.e., nonovertime hours) on that day.
- Holiday premium pay (equal to 100 percent of the rate of basic pay) is paid for non-overtime hours of work that fall within the hours regularly scheduled on the holiday.
- Sunday premium pay is paid for non-overtime work performed by full-time employees. Sunday premium pay is paid for the entire non-overtime regularly scheduled tour of duty that begins or ends on Sunday for an employee on a CWS. Sunday premium pay may not be paid for periods of non-work, including leave, holidays, and excused absence.
