1. PAY. The Employer agrees to provide accurate and timely reports of time and attendance for pay purposes to the payroll office for the Bureau.
a) Pay Recovery. The Employer agrees to assist any Employee who does not receive his/her pay by the Friday afternoon following the scheduled payday. The Employer will follow up with the payroll office on lost, stolen, or missing pay.
b) Back Pay. Any Employee who is entitled to back pay will be paid interest on back pay in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
c) Overtime. Assignment of overtime is an assignment of work and thus the Employer's prerogative. The Employer retains the right to determine what qualifications are required to perform the work and who best meets those qualifications. A reasonable effort will be made to assign overtime work that is comparable to the Employee's regular duties. A good faith effort will be made to assign overtime equitably among equally qualified Employees performing the same or similar duties. The Employer agrees to use volunteers for overtime assignments to the fullest extent possible.
(1) The Employer may, upon request of an Employee, relieve an Employee from an overtime assignment where such assignment would cause a hardship for the Employee and where another Employee is deemed qualified by the Employer, is available for the assignment, and is willing to perform the required overtime work.
(2) The Employer will give the Employee(s) advanced notice of overtime assignments as circumstances permit.
(3) Any Employee who is required by the Employer to return to the Bureau for work outside of his/her basic workweek to perform unscheduled overtime work shall be paid a minimum of two (2) hours of overtime pay, or the amount of overtime pay for the actual time worked, whichever is more.
(4) All Employees covered under the Fair Labor Standards Acts (FLSA non-exempt) must be compensated for officially ordered and approved overtime work. FLSA non-exempt Employees may be compensated by compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay only at the written request of the Employee. Employees on overtime shall be compensated for any partial hours worked in increments of fifteen (15) minutes. Seven (7) minutes or less shall be regarded as inconsequential and shall be disregarded, more than seven (7) minutes and less than fifteen (15) minutes will be rounded up to the next fifteen (15) minute increment; this rule applies to the first increment and to all succeeding increments of overtime.
(a) Compensatory time earned will be used in advance of annual leave except in cases where the Employee must use annual leave to avoid its loss. Compensatory time may be converted to pay if it is not used within the allotted number of pay periods prescribed by the Bureau's regulations (currently 12 pay periods). Compensatory time earned will normally be converted to pay when the Employee transfers to another Bureau or Agency.
(b) Employees may voluntarily work in excess of their scheduled number of hours, with supervisory approval, for the purpose of earning credit hours. It is the Employee's responsibility to monitor his/her credit hour balance to ensure any credit hours worked do not exceed the maximum allowable carryover. Credit hours worked in excess of the maximum allowable carry over are forfeited by the Employee and do not accrue any entitlement to overtime pay, may not be converted to compensatory time, or maintained "off the record". Additional requirements with regard to earning and using credit hours are contained in the MAC AWS Guidelines.
d) Night differential, Sunday, and holiday premium pay and other differential entitlements such as hazardous duty, post differential, e.g. Antarctica assignments, shall be administered in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
e) Unemployment compensation. The Parties agree that Employees should receive any and all payments to which they are entitled.
(1) The Employer will file the necessary forms with the USGS unemployment compensation provider in conformance with all applicable rules and regulations and in a timely manner.
(2) The Employer will provide all bargaining unit Employees who leave the MAC and Federal service simultaneously with the Employer form necessary for filing with the State or local office of unemployment compensation.
(3) The Employer agrees to assist bargaining unit Employees in applying for benefits by providing additional information requested by State or local offices within five (5) workdays of receipt of the request.
(4) The Employer will follow all applicable law, rules and regulations when calling Employees back to work.
2. TRAVEL. All travel authorizations will be made in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR) and Bureau procedures
a) The Employer will attempt to schedule official travel during the Employee's regular work hours. In instances where this is not possible or is not under the control of the Employer, Employees will be compensated in accordance with the FTR and the applicable provisions of the Title 5, United States Code and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
b) Employees on official travel will be paid the appropriate per diem rate for the geographic location to which they are assigned.
c) With supervisory approval, Employees who travel frequently will be permitted to use an annual limited open travel authorization (TDL) in lieu of specific travel authorizations for individual incidents of travel. Procedures and forms prescribed by the Bureau travel office will be used for all TDL's.
d) Employees on official travel are encouraged to use the government sponsored travel charge card (currently American Express) for all government travel related charges such as lodging, rental cars, meals and advances.
(1) Employees are encouraged to use the ATM privileges associated with the charge card to obtain their authorized travel advance. Travel advances via the imprest fund or Treasury check will not be allowed after December 30, 1998, in accordance with the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996. After that time, travel advances will only be available through Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT). Travel advances are limited to the appropriate amount for meals and incidental expenses (M&IE).
(2) Employees will normally file any accurate travel voucher within three (3) working days of the date they return to the office to ensure timely reimbursement. Employees are expected to pay their government sponsored travel charge card immediately upon receipt of the reimbursement for expenses. In the event reimbursement is delayed through no fault of the Employee, the Employer agrees to provide a letter of explanation to the charge card provider and any credit bureau to which the late payment has been reported.
(3) The Parties agree that the use of the Government sponsored credit card will be used in accordance with law, rule, and governmentwide regulation. Exceptions and emergency situations will be handled on a case-by-case basis with the advise and assistance of the USGS/DOI travel management offices.