Compensatory Time Off and Personnel Ceilings for Part-Time Employees

As part of a settlement agreement with one of its employees, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked GAO for its opinion regarding government policy toward part-time workers. Specifically, SEC requested an opinion regarding the authority of an agency to provide compensatory time to employees who normally are officially assigned to work fewer than 40 hours per week but who are requested, on occasion, to work beyond their normal part-time tour of duty. Also, SEC requested an opinion as to the legality and propriety of counting part-time employees fractionally against an assigned manpower ceiling. SEC agreed in the settlement to issue a memorandum indicating that part-time employees would be counted in this manner. GAO held that the law provided that part-time employees were entitled to compensatory time off in lieu of overtime compensation for irregular or occasional overtime work performed in excess of 40 hours in an administrative workweek or 8 hours in a day. With respect to counting part-time employees fractionally against assigned manpower ceilings, legislation effective October 1980 will require that part-time career employees be counted as a fraction which will be determined by dividing 40 hours into the average number of hours of the employee's regularly scheduled workweek. Thus, GAO held that as of that date, there would be no legal impediment to issuing the memorandum contemplated by the settlement agreement.