The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will again report on how much time and money federal employees spend on union activity after a hiatus during the Biden administration following a request from Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.
Ernst and Republican Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas urged OPM to resume reporting taxpayer-funded union time (TFUT), also known as “official time,” when Ernst introduced the “Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallets Act of 2025” on Feb. 11. Ernst praised the Trump administration for the decision, as revealed in a Feb. 27 memo provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation, in which OPM Acting Director Charles Eskell directed agencies to resume tracking TFUT.
“I am thrilled to see the Trump administration restart the reporting of taxpayer-funded union time, so the American people know just how much money bureaucrats are paid not to work,” Ernst told the DCNF. “Federal employees should be serving taxpayers, not themselves, during the workday. If they want to engage in union activity, they need to refund taxpayers for every last penny.”
Shouldn’t government employees be working in the office? Or is this more taxpayer-funded union picketing?
Either way, tax dollars shouldn’t be funding this.
Playtime is over!
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) February 11, 2025
The Feb. 27 memo orders federal agencies to provide information on the job positions held by employees carrying out union activities on taxpayer time, whether or not they engaged in telework, the total number of hours employees spent on union time and information on the use of government materials and office space.
Ernst requested that government agencies provide information on TFUT in December. Ernst’s office received information from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about TFUT for fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
The data from NRC showed one employee, a project manager, who earned $171,469 a year, spent over 99.5% of their time on union work in fiscal year 2023, while a project manager earning $166,393 per year also spent over 99.5% of their time on union activities in fiscal year 2024. Three other employees, listed as reliability and risk engineers, earned at least $163,000 a year in the NRC data and spent at least 48% of their time on union activities during fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
Ernst previously uncovered abuses relating to “official time,” with one employee moving to Florida and working in real estate while on the arrangement, while another employee claimed to be on “official time” while being jailed following an arrest for drinking and driving.
Federal employees spent 2.6 million hours, the equivalent of almost three centuries, on union activities, costing taxpayers at least $135 million in fiscal year 2019, according to Ernst, who cited data from OPM. Unions also used at least $24 million in office space and supplies paid for by taxpayers.
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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
Republished with permission from Daily Caller News Foundation
As a former DOD union steward, it was necessary, not desired, I can assure you that all time I spent on union issues was on the taxpayers dime. I guess there is some phony BS out there about union reimbursment for time away from the job. I was never required to turn in union time to my supervisor. As the steward of a small office, I spent most of my union time telling people to shut up and get back to work. Far too many employees think the union is there to beat up on management. I think that is what the union leaders believe. The only positive things I did was to support management in getting rid of poor performers and trouble makers. I did intercede for employees on a few issues of management overreach or just general vindictiveness, the reason I joined the union and took on the position. Go Sen Ernst!