Federal agencies must give employees 60 days' notice before implementing prolonged furloughs, according to guidance released yesterday by the Office of Personnel Management in the face of possible across-the-board budget cuts.

The guidance came just six days before sequestration could go into effect unless Congress acts to stop it. Agencies so far have said very little about how they would handle the cuts, which would slash budgets more than 8 percent in the new year.

Yesterday's guidance offers a little more insight into how agencies would go about putting employees on unpaid leave if Congress fails to act within the first few weeks of the year.

The process is different from what would occur in a government shutdown, during which agencies put everyone but "essential" personnel on unpaid leave because they have no budget for payroll.

Instead, agencies would have to give notice for an "administrative furlough." OPM defines such a furlough as a planned event "necessitated by downsizing, reduced funding, lack of work, or any other budget situation other than a lapse in appropriations."

Agencies would thus give employees notice and tell them the total number of furlough days they can expect.

But the White House has made it clear that it believes there is some wiggle room. In other words, Congress has a few more weeks to act before agencies have to change their spending at all.

Last week, agencies sent emails to employees outlining what to expect if Congress doesn't act, based on a memo from the Office of Management and Budget (Greenwire, Dec. 20). At the Interior Department, for example, Deputy Secretary David Hayes assured employees that he did "not expect our day-to-day operations to change dramatically on or immediately after January 2, should sequestration occur."

The bottom line: Employees should expect work to continue as normal on Jan. 2. Agencies will essentially front-load their budgets, in the expectation that Congress will come to a deal.

But that would only hold out for a few weeks, with furloughs and layoffs likely if Congress delays a fix too long. The White House has not defined that time frame, though the watchdog group OMB Watch has estimated that agencies might have to start deep cuts in one month (Greenwire, Nov. 5).

Government employees sweat workload, other concerns

Meanwhile, federal employees are worried not only about unpaid leave but also about how their workloads will change once agencies start slashing program budgets.

The U.S. EPA chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees filed an information request last week, demanding details on everything from the cost of existing contracts to what workload changes would occur under sequestration.

Union officials argue that such information is necessary to prepare for negotiations if furloughs and layoffs become necessary. But so far, they say, EPA officials have kept silent on their sequestration plans, only telling the union that while managers are having "discussions," no decisions have been made.

"AFGE Council 238 simply cannot wait until the Agency deems it necessary to let the bargaining unit employees know what to expect," wrote John O'Grady, treasurer of AFGE Council 238. "By that time, it may well be too late for any meaningful discussions, let alone negotiations."

In an email yesterday, O'Grady said the union "is NOT happy with the lack of information from the Agency regarding sequestration."

AFGE has gotten most of its information from news articles, he said, and employees are becoming concerned.

But agencies and unions alike still seem confident that Congress will come to some deal, whether it's before or after Jan. 2.

O'Grady predicted that Congress would eventually avoid the sequester by making cuts to federal pay and benefits. Republicans have floated several plans to offset this year's across-the-board cuts through such measures as lengthening the current pay freeze and increasing the amount employees contribute to their retirement.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Obama have also both proposed the adoption of the chained consumer price index, a way to calculate inflation that would ultimately result in less generous cost-of-living adjustments for federal retirees and Social Security recipients.

"What I think is going to happen is that once again President Obama and the Democrats will sell the Federal employees down the drain," O'Grady said. "The end result over the course of the next year will be increased retirements ... of those employees that have the years but would otherwise have stayed on with the Agency."