1.  PURPOSE:  The Flexitour and other Alternate Work Schedule Plans are designed to provide advantages to both the Employer and the employees.  The objectives of the Flexitour Plan and other Alternate Work Schedules (AWS), are to:

a. Provide the public with expanded hours of service;
b. Increase the hours for communication across time zones;
c. Increase productivity;
d. Help reduce short-term employee absences and tardiness;
e. Improve employee morale by permitting employees to adjust their work hours to meet the needs of their personal lives;
f. Improve recruiting and retention;
g. Decrease traffic congestion and facilitate the use of alternative forms of transportation and thereby improve air quality;
h. Reduce commuting time (by removing trips from peak hours); and
i. Increase child care and ridesharing options.

Flexitour and other Alternate Work Schedule Plans shall continue within Passport Services.  The Employer may not terminate Flexitour and other Alternate Work Schedules without providing the Union notice and opportunity to negotiate. However, during emergencies, including workload crises, the Employer may suspend an AWS for one pay period during any calendar year after providing notice to the Union and the employees.  If Management then proposes to extend the suspension of an AWS for more than one pay period, it must notify the Union and provide an opportunity to negotiate as appropriate over the issue prior to the extension.  Flexitour and other Alternate Work Schedule Plans may vary based on the requirements of each Passport Agency.

Where the provisions of this Article describe procedures for Union/Management Councils to develop Flexitour and Alternate Work Schedules, it is understood that Management or the Union may also make proposals relating to tours and Alternate Work Schedules and establish policies through traditional Union-Management bargaining methods.  Each office will work out a local agreement through its Union/Management Council including the availability of each plan and the distribution of available slots among interested employees.

2.  PROCEDURE

a.  Each employee who wishes to participate in a Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedule Plan must submit a written request to the Regional or Office Director through his/her immediate supervisor. The Regional or Office Director will make a reasonable effort to approve the Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedule requested by each employee. When the Regional or Office Director determines that a Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedule impacts, or would impact, adversely on Employer costs, productivity, efficiency and/or service to the public, the Regional or Office Director will propose an alternative plan, if practicable, after considering the views of the employees affected. If a temporary modification in an employee's schedule is required by an emergency situation, the modification will be rescinded as soon as possible following the end of that emergency situation.

b.  An employee must arrange in advance his/her Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedule for a period of time determined by each regional Union/Management Council, normally not less than of one quarter of the calendar year.

c.  Except for a temporary change initiated by an employee and agreed to by his/her supervisor, starting and stopping times must be the same for each workday (except for the 8 hour workday in the 5/4-9 Compressed Work Schedule, which would have starting and stopping times at fixed times within those set for the 9 hour workdays) and must remain the same until a written request for a change is approved by the Regional Director or designee.

d.  Employees who withdraw from one of the Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedule Plans may do so at any time by giving two weeks written notice to the Regional Director or his/her designee.

e. The Employer agrees to attempt to accommodate requests for change in Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedules at any time where the request is motivated by unforseeable circumstances in an employee's personal life, such as loss of a car pool, illness in the family, etc., provided such a change does not interfere with the accomplishment of the Agency’s mission.

a.  The following requirements represent the limitations within which the individual Passport Agencies and other Passport Services offices will establish their Flexitour and other Alternate Work Schedule Plans. These requirements apply to all bargaining unit employees:

(1) A lunch period (minimum of 30 minutes) must be incorporated into the workday. This lunch period may not be taken at the beginning or the end of the core time;

(2)  Each employee is allowed a 15 minute break during every 4 hours worked.  Employees may schedule break periods with lunch/dinner periods with the approval of the first line supervisor;

(3) A full time employee must account for 80 hours per pay period including actual hours worked, leave taken, and paid holidays;

(4) Supervisors continue to be held responsible for the time, attendance, and productivity of employees under their supervision. Employees participating in the programs are expected to maintain the productivity standards they achieved during regular hours of operation.

(5) Those employees who are not authorized, or elect not to work a Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedule, shall continue to work their present hours.

b.  Each location will maintain the status quo unless the Union/Management Council at each location sets the following:

(1) The earliest and the latest time an employee may work;

(2) The lunch period; and

(3) The core time (that time during which each employee must be present for work).

a. Flexitour Schedule:  With a flexitour arrangement, an employee is allowed to select starting and stopping times within the flexible hours.  Once a Flexitour schedule is established, the hours are fixed until the employee makes a written request during a time period specified by a local office policy developed by Union/Management Councils at each location.

b. Compressed Work Schedule:  Compressed Work Schedules (CWS) are always fixed work schedules.  CWS are arranged to enable a full-time employee to complete the basic 80 hour biweekly work requirement in less than 10 workdays.  Employees may work a greater number of hours when overtime is authorized, including working on their normally scheduled day off.

(1) The four day workweek and the 5/4-9 compressed plan are the two types of Compressed Work Schedules available in the Department of State.

(a) Four Day Workweek:  a full time employee must work 10 hours a day, 40 hours a week, and 80 hours a biweekly pay period.

(b) 5/4-9 Plan:  a full time employee must work eight 9-hour days and one 8-hour day for a total of 80 hours in a biweekly pay period.

(2)  All CWS employees may have set arrival and departure times or the arrival and departure times may be staggered.  If the arrival and departure times are staggered, once the schedule is requested by the employee and agreed to by Agency management, these arrival and departure schedules remain fixed until there is an open period for changing or rotating the CWS schedule.

(3)  Non-workdays for CWS employees will be established locally.  Certain days of the week may be set aside by the Union/Management Council that may not be used for non-workdays.

(4)  Likewise, one specific day for all CWS employees to work as the short day (e.g., 8 day on a 5/4-9 tour), or different days for each CWS employee may be set.  Once agreed to, the short day remains fixed until there is an open period.

(5)  During a pay period with one or more holidays, Agency management can not move a CWS employee's short day to fall on a day designated as a holiday, except as may be required for operational reasons as provided for by CWS regulations and other government-wide regulations.

(6)  A full-time employee on a compressed work schedule, such as the 5/4-9 tour, who is relieved or prevented from working on a day designated as a holiday is entitled to his or her rate of basic pay for the number of hours of the CWS for that day.  This means that if a holiday falls on a CWS employee’s regularly scheduled 9 hour workday, he or she would receive 9 hours of pay; if holiday falls on a CWS employee’s regularly scheduled 8 hour workday, he or she would receive 8 hours of pay.   The employee’s time and attendance record must reflect this accordingly.

(7) If a holiday falls on a non-workday, which is Monday through Saturday, the CWS employee's preceding workday will be designated as the "in lieu of" holiday.  The employee's time and attendance record for the "in lieu of" holiday should reflect the number of hours that the employee had been scheduled to work.  This means that the holiday changes for the CWS employee, but the non-workday does not.

 For example, the fixed non-workday for a CWS employee is Monday.

(a) If the holiday falls on Monday, the non-workday remains Monday, but the "in lieu of" holiday becomes the preceding workday (or Friday).

(b) If a holiday falls on the Sunday non-workday of the employee, the subsequent workday (or Tuesday) will be the designated “in lieu of” holiday.

(8)  A full-time CWS employee's time and attendance record will always account for 80 hours of work or will be accounted for by charging leave, excused absence, holiday hours, compensatory time off, or time off as an award during the biweekly pay period (exclusive of overtime).

(9)  CWS employees can not arbitrarily move their non-workday to another day of the week.

(10)  Agency management can not suspend CWS for employees during pay periods that include one or more holidays for the purpose of avoiding the holiday.

c. Flexiplace:  The Federal Flexible Workplace Program provides employees the opportunity to work part of the workweek (generally on a regular basis) at alternative worksites away from the main worksite.  Job performance has to be measured by results under clearly defined tasks and deliverables.

The Passport Services instructions will be used as a guideline by the regional Union/Management Councils in administering the Flexiplace Program. Employees who elect and are approved to participate in this program must sign the Flexiplace Agreement found in Appendix A.

(See February 8, 2005 Amendment)

d.  Second Shift:  The requirements, objectives and mission are the same for all shift work.  General schedule employees working a night shift receive a ten percent differential of their rate of basic pay when they perform regularly scheduled night work between the hours of 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM.  General schedule employees regularly scheduled on a night shift are also eligible for this night differential when participating in certain training in accordance with 5 CFR 410.402(b), when excused from work on a holiday or other non-workdays, and while on official travel status.  For general schedule employees, night shift differentials are paid in addition to overtime, Sunday or holiday pay, but are not included in the rate of base pay used to compute these payments.

(See May 22, 2008 Amendment) 

e. Part Time and Job Sharing: Part time work and Job Sharing are part of the State Department Alternate Work Schedules.  The Parties recognize that due to funding and resource limitations, the availability of these alternate work plans is limited.  The Employer agrees to notify the Union if and when resources will allow more employees to participate in these plans.

a.  Modifications or restrictions of the use of Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedules by employees shall be based on one or more of the following:

(1) Operational consideration, including emergencies, related to the work situation only;

(2) Abuse of Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedules, meaning misconduct of a serious nature during the scheduled work day that would be alleviated by the presence of a supervisor;

(3) Temporary suspension of the employee's participation in the Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedules program for formal training;

(4) Requirement for close supervision for the initial training required to understand and perform the duties of the position;

(5) Requirement for close supervision of employees with serious deficiencies in the performance of their primary tasks over a period of at least one month, to the extent that the level of their performance would constitute grounds for an unsatisfactory performance rating. The intent here is that employees operating at this level would have the attention, to the extent practicable, of their regular or acting supervisors during times that the supervisors would not be available if the employees were participating in a Flexitour or other Alternate Work Schedule Plan.

b. Justifications for modifications or restrictions may be reviewed upon a change in conditions.