[Query Concerning Duty Assignment of Typists Working at Home]

The Veterans Administration proposed allowing a limited number of typists to work at home and asked whether there would be any objection to paying these employees. The typists would be selected after a monitoring period during which their lines-per-minute and their number of mistakes per line would be computed. The volume and quality norms established during the in-house monitoring would be the basis for reviewing the work performed at home. Typists would be required to schedule home work hours in advance and turn in a signed weekly record of periods actually worked. GAO found that paying these employees is legally permissible as long as their actual work performance can be measured against established quantity and quality norms.