§6131 Criteria and review

Summary

An agency head must decide quickly not to start, or to end, a flexible or compressed work schedule if they find it would harm the agency. Harm means one or more of these things: lower agency productivity, worse service to the public, or higher operating costs (not counting normal paperwork costs to set up the schedule). If the employees are represented by a union, special steps apply. If the agency and the union cannot agree about not starting a schedule, they must send the dispute to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, which will review it and will side with the agency if evidence shows the schedule is likely to cause harm. If the agency wants to end a schedule covered by a contract, it can try to reopen the agreement; if an impasse arises, the Panel must decide within 60 days and will side with the agency if evidence shows the schedule has caused harm. A schedule cannot be ended until the contract is renegotiated or expires, or until the Panel’s final decision if an impasse occurred. The rule does not apply to flexible schedules that can be set up without using this law’s authority.