Union wants continued maximum telework—but OPM is pushing back
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AFGE says the agency has rejected—often without due consideration—at least 80 proposals the union has made to retain the expanded remote work pioneered during the COVID pandemic.
Across the federal workplace, the dangers of COVID-19 brought about rapid change. At many agencies, huge portions—even majorities—of feds began working remotely.
This spike came in even sharper contrast with the years just before the pandemic, as a long rise in telework had slowed to a crawl—indeed, reversed at some agencies—due to top-level resistance to telework throughout most of the Trump administration.
Now, with COVID still widespread but hospitalizations and deaths down, the once-telework supportive Biden administration is pushing for a return to traditional workplaces, at least for many—and that long-anticipated trend is starting to meet resistance from many feds.
Leadership at some agencies, in recent months, has been pressing more feds to return to their office spaces. Many of those feds, and their union representatives, are now pushing back.
The American Federation of Government Employees, for its part, is insisting that remote work remains not only safer but more efficient, and continues to try to negotiate a way to keep “maximum telework” going at the agency.
“We are still in a pandemic,” Marlo Bryant-Cunningham, president of AFGE Local 32—which represents OPM workers, said. “Returning people back to the office should not be rushed, and it certainly should not be done without providing a healthy and safe environment for employees to work.”
AFGE points out that it has tried on scores of proposals to satisfy OPM’s concerns about continued maximum telework—at least 80 “telework proposals” have been proffered, to be exact.
The union, for its part, continues to approach the issue in an optimistic sprit that it can work out the bumps with management. AFGE “wants the agency to use lessons learned during the pandemic to continue to serve the American public while keeping employees safe,” the union said.
“OPM’s director seems more concerned with political posturing and assessing unreasonable deadlines for employees to return to the office than working out these details with our union,” AFGE said.