Posts tagged telework
College staff threaten to quit after administration orders them to return to office 5 days a week
May 29, 2025 // Georgia's public universities are now requiring staff to return to the office five days a week, causing backlash from employees who claim the mandate will cause additional problems. The University System of Georgia, which governs public university institutions in the state, announced at the start of the year that faculty must be present on campus during core business hours. Last month, USG's chancellor Dr. Sonny Perdue told presidents and administrators at a Board of Regents meeting, 'If that’s not what y’all want, you let me know, because that’s where we’re going,' the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
NJ Transit engineers on strike after contract negotiations fail — wreaking havoc on commuters
May 16, 2025 // The union said in a statement Thursday that its engineers are the “lowest paid locomotive engineers working for a commuter railroad in the nation” — claims NJ Transit has denied. With the strike on, its members will form picket lines across the system starting at 4 a.m. Friday morning, at locations that include outside NJ Transit’s Headquarters in Newark (2 Gateway Center), Penn Station in New York City (8th Avenue and 33rd Street entrance) and the Atlantic City Rail Terminal. NJ Transit posted flyers and digital signage at major transit hubs in recent days, including the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, warning of a “critical service advisory” and that customers should “complete their travels and arrive at their final destination no later than 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 15.”
OMB memo requires agencies to track federal employees’ attendance
May 14, 2025 // The General Services Administration recommends that agencies capture data from employees when they swipe their ID badges at security checkpoints, or use data from their laptops or daily check-ins to approximate how many employees are working in federal buildings. The OMB memo gives agencies until May 19 to start collecting building occupancy data. That data includes a summary of daily occupancy totals for each day of the week and the average occupancy of each building based on a two-week average. OMB expects full implementation by July 4.
Blizzard’s Overwatch Team Just Unionized: ‘What I Want To Protect Most Here Is The People’
May 12, 2025 // The Overwatch 2 team at Blizzard has unionized. That includes nearly 200 developers across disciplines ranging from art and testing to engineering and design. Basically anyone who doesn’t have someone else reporting to them. It’s the second wall-to-wall union at the storied game maker since the World of Warcraft team unionized last July.
CA Public Employees and Unions Whining about Returning to the Office 5 Years Later
April 29, 2025 // Gavin Newsom created this mess. He sent state employees home when he locked the state down March 2020 ostensibly over a flu. And he let state employees work from home for 5 years. Many have done well, and are accountable employees, But many more are not, and need supervision and accountability. President Trump’s back-to-the-office order and hiring freeze has elicited a lot of kvetching in D.C., but is designed to suss out the deadwood in the federal government – something Governor Newsom should also be doing, figuratively and literally.
Opinion: Remote work is a new battlefield for unions
April 22, 2025 // A series of Trump administration executive orders, and recent guidance from the Office of Personnel Management , aim to dismantle federal telework arrangements. That guidance indicates that agencies can override union contracts when it comes to deciding how much or how little employees get to work from home. Legal experts warn that reversing negotiated telework clauses not only puts federal employees’ work-life balance at risk but also sets a precedent that could weaken collective bargaining in other areas.
IRS workers only had to show up to work once a week in person, before Trump took over
April 18, 2025 // Last December, a bombshell report from Ernst’s office found that a measly 6% of the federal workforce showed up “in-person on a full-time basis.” Almost one-third of federal workers were remote on a full-time basis at the time, marking a steep decline from the pre-pandemic era in which only 3% teleworked daily, according to the report. Ernst has clashed with the IRS repeatedly, including over watchdog findings last July that current and former workers owed $46 million to Uncle Sam in unpaid taxes. “This adds insult to injury to the fact that the agency is filled with tax cheats,” the Hawkeye State senator added, referring to the collective bargaining deal. “I have a laundry list of reforms to fix America’s least favorite government agency.”
For California’s largest public union, telework poses challenge — and opportunity
April 15, 2025 // SEIU Local 1000’s leaders in recent years have struggled to stem a decline in the percentage of members who pay dues. The group represents roughly 95,000 state workers, which includes accountants, nurses and custodians. Fewer dues-paying members in their ranks means less sway at the bargaining table and with state leaders.
Commentary: Taxpayer-Funded Union Work Deserves Transparency, Limits
March 21, 2025 // The Office of Personnel Management estimated federal employees spent at least 2.6 million hours on official time in fiscal year 2019, at a cost to taxpayers of $135 million. This was after President Trump sharply curbed taxpayer-funded union time via a 2018 executive order. Because unions have a right to unspecified quantities of official time under federal statute, the most the president can do without congressional action is implement parameters around its use or, in the case of the Biden administration, crank it to 11. In his drive to become “the most pro-union president in history,” Biden rescinded Trump’s executive order limiting official time and directed federal agencies to grant unions more taxpayer-funded union time.
Inside The Now-Shuttered Federal Agency Where Employees Lived ‘Like Reigning Kings’
March 20, 2025 // The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) occupied a nine-story office tower on D.C.’s K Street for only 60 employees, many of whom actually worked from home, prior to the pandemic. Its managers had luxury suites with full bathrooms; one manager would often be “in the shower” when she was needed, while another used her bathroom as a cigarette lounge. FMCS recorded its director as being on a years-long business trip to D.C. so he could have all of his meals and living expenses covered by taxpayers, simply for showing up to the office. FMCS is a 230-employee agency that exists to serve as a voluntary mediator between unions and businesses. As an “independent agency,” its director nominally reports to the president, but the agency is so small that in effect, there is no oversight at all