Thursday, September 04, 2008

Make a good PIE

With summer winding to a close, the Fort Belvoir Garrison and many of its tenant organizations are looking forward to participating in the Army’s Partners in Education program.

PIE is an Army-authorized program that encourages Soldiers and federal employees to work with local schools to foster community relations and act as mentors for students.

Partner schools are reaping a great benefit from the wealth of experiences our Soldiers and employees bring to their students. As the PIE program expands and participation grows, managers of civilian employees need to remember that certain rules on work attendance, use of government resources and liability do not change, even though the employee is a PIE volunteer.

PIE originated from a 1996 presidential memorandum that encouraged the federal workforce to make its communities stronger by volunteering. At President William Clinton’s direction, the Office of Personnel Management created guidelines for federal agencies to follow in implementing volunteer programs. 

Employees’ work schedules and time off to participate in the PIE program are issues for which guidance is always requested. OPM has provided very straightforward guidelines, and it gives the supervisor three options:

•Create alternative work schedules to allow participation. That is, you may require your employee to work his or her 80-hour-per-pay-period
work schedule, but you may do so creatively to allow PIE participation.

•Allow for the liberal use of regular leave and leave without pay to allow participation.

•Provide the employee with an excused absence - administrative leave - as long asthe absence is directly related to PIE. However, the absence must be brief and infrequent.  Moreover, the excused absence option should not be allowed if it is detrimental to accomplishing a mission.

Fort Belvoir’s staff judge advocate strongly recommends that if your employees are participating in PIE, you choose one criteria for the leave status and apply that status evenly to your entire staff to avoid any unneeded confusion.

Other issues that have arisen deal with the use of government equipment for PIE program purposes. Government equipment may not be used in the PIE program. It is really that simple. 

You also may not raise funds at work for the partner school or program. Fundraising activities are prohibited from occurring in government offices. However, if you want to put a box in the front office for people to donate items for use by the students, it is acceptable. Don’t forget, though, that there can be no coercion or perception of coercion by management to contribute. This would be an unlawful personnel practice in violation of code.

Finally, two other issues must be addressed.

First, programs under PIE cannot involve political activity. So, if the Young Democratic Club or Young Republican Club wants your employee’s help in promoting their candidate as a part of school activities, you must decline. To participate in such activity would violate the Hatch Act.

Second, in the unfortunate event that an employee is injured while participating in PIE, the employee will most likely be eligible for Worker’s Compensation. 

The PIE is a wonderfully successful program. However, let us not lose sight of the fact this is a volunteer program that is not without its limitations. Please contact your labor counselor with any specific questions.