Posts tagged telework
White House tells agencies to strike a balance between telework, in-office work
April 14, 2023 // “Today, the public is often dissatisfied with government services when compared against the private sector,” OMB said. “Agencies must ensure that all services, including public facing services, continue to meet and exceed customer expectations and needs.” Federal telework policy is up to each agency and based on individual situations. Agencies have the discretion to allow telework depending on their mission and business needs. The new guidance from the White House gained some early pushback. Federal unions and agency chief human capital officers were reportedly left out of the process of putting together the OMB memo.
Unions ‘sound the alarm’ over worsening staff attrition at SSA
April 12, 2023 // With what AFGE said is a lack of competitive pay and benefits, SSA lost almost 4,500 bargaining unit employees in fiscal 2022 — over 10% of AFGE’s total membership for SSA.
McDonald’s reportedly temporarily shuts its U.S. corporate offices ahead of layoffs
April 3, 2023 // McDonald’s Corp is temporarily closing its U.S. offices this week as it prepares to inform corporate employees about its layoffs as part of a broader company restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. In an internal email last week to U.S. employees and some international staff, McDonald’s asked them to work from home from Monday through Wednesday so it can deliver staffing decisions virtually, the report said. It is unclear how many employees will be laid off.
National Treasury Employees Union President Reardon to step down
March 20, 2023 // First elected to the union’s highest seat in 2015, Reardon, who has been involved with NTEU for more than three decades, will retire when his term ends on Aug. 10, 2023.
State of the Unions: A New Normal
January 23, 2023 // Agencies and unions alike are likely to encounter more resistance to expanded telework and other workplace flexibilities from the newly divided Congress. House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced last week that he has introduced legislation that would require agencies to revert to pre-pandemic telework policies as well as a study about how telework impacted government services and productivity. In addition to rolling back Trump-era policies targeting union activity in the federal government, the White House has recommended a number of measures to make it easier for federal employee unions to communicate with workers they represent, as well as expand into agencies whose workforces have historically remained unorganized.
Labor unions expand into legislator offices
January 23, 2023 // “Unionizing staffers in legislative offices makes no sense because it creates more problems than it solves,” says Brigette Herbst, senior organizing director for AFFT and a former state legislative staffer, “How does unionization work with the long and unpredictable hours during a legislative session? How will elected officials handle untrustworthy staffers? Union organizers haven’t answered these important questions.” Labor unions have also turned their focus to legislative staffers at the state level.
Unions are “Baking In” Remote Work for Federal Employees
January 19, 2023 // But the prospect of conflict with union contracts, uncovered by TechTarget, adds a wrinkle to any plans. “Remote work policies are also getting baked into federal employee union agreements, which could make it difficult for federal agencies to order workers back to the office even if they wanted to,” the story said. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) claims to be “made up of over 281,000 workers in almost every agency of the federal and D.C. governments, spread across 936 local unions.” In December 2022, after some extended legal struggles with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the union said that the two parties had reached a settlement over immediate flexible work arrangements “while we negotiate terms for a permanent telework program.”
Union: NM calling state employees back to in-person work without much of a plan
January 17, 2023 //
Reuters to Allow Employees Mostly Work From Home in Tentative Agreement with Union
January 2, 2023 // The agreement between Reuters and the union expired nearly two years ago. In August, Reuters employees held their first strike in decades over stalled wage negotiations. Reuters reportedly offered 1 percent wage increases over three years, despite a 9 percent inflation rate for urban consumers. Last month, unionized employees authorized another strike. The agreement lets Reuters change its work-from-home policies after the 2023 year. It also limits management’s use of nondisclosure agreements in harassment and discrimination cases, according to Bloomberg. Union members will vote on the contract today (Dec. 28).