Summary: Union activities at federal agencies can range from representing employees in complaints against management to bargaining over changes in working conditions to negotiating union contracts with management. The government pays its workers' salaries and expenses for the time they are allowed to spend on union activities; it also provides other support, such as supplies and some travel expenses. The Social Security Administration (SSA), like other federal agencies and some private sector firms, pays for approved time spent by its employees on union activities. To ensure accurate tracking of time spent on union activities and the staff conducting them, SSA has developed and is testing a new time-reporting system for its field offices and teleservice centers. GAO believes that the new time-reporting system should be implemented agencywide, including at headquarters, program service centers, the Office of Hearing and Appeals, and units now using the less reliable manual reporting system. With an improved agencywide system, SSA should have better information on where its resources are being spent.
