Federal employees would be permitted to earn compensatory time off for religious observances within 26 pay periods (52 weeks) of taking the time off under a new proposed rule from the Office of Personnel Management. 

Under the proposed rule, published in the Aug. 30 Federal Register, federal employees also would be permitted to earn compensatory time off in anticipation of a future religious observance up to 26 pay periods in advance of the observance, the OPM said. 

Employees would be required to provide their agencies with reasonable notice of planned religious observances, and agencies would be permitted to ask employees for documentation of the need for the compensatory time, according to the OPM. 

If the employee fails to perform overtime work in exchange for advanced religious compensatory time off within 26 pay periods, the OPM said, the proposed rule provides that "the agency may take corrective action to eliminate or reduce the negative balance by making a corresponding reduction in the employee's annual leave balance." If the employee does not have enough annual leave to make up for the advanced religious compensatory time off, the OPM added, it can charge the employee for leave without pay for the time taken. 

Under the proposed rule, agencies would be required to "keep appropriate records on the amount of religious compensatory time off each employee earns and uses," the OPM said. 

Comments on the proposed rule are due no later than Oct. 29.

In other public sector news: 

• The Office of Personnel Management has reduced its federal employee retirement claims backlog from 25,601 claims in July to 22,750 in August, according to new figures posted on the OPM's website. 

• Federal employees who owe the government taxes may find themselves with a reprieve if Internal Revenue Service agents are unable to contact them, provided that "the unpaid balance of assessments" is below a certain threshold, according to a newly issued IRS field collection guidance.

• Six unions representing a total of 57,745 state employees in different bargaining units have reached new two- or three-year tentative collective bargaining agreements with the state in recent weeks, with four of the contracts giving workers pay increases that hinge on California's fiscal condition.

• A federal judge in a bench ruling granted the city of San Bernardino, Calif., Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection over objections from the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which said such a move would set a "dangerous precedent."