SSA Loses Arbitration On Telework

From the Federal Times:

An arbitrator has ordered the Social Security Administration to reverse its rollback of a telework program for some employees and to bargain with the employees’ union over any changes it wants to make.

The agency must decide by April 25 whether to appeal the ruling.

The order affects about 100 senior case technicians in SSA’s Boston region who are responsible for preparing disability claims cases for review by administrative law judges. But the case is being watched by about 2,000 senior case technicians across the country, many of whom complain that they too have been provided less freedom to work at home, said Jim Marshall, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 215.

For years, senior case technicians were allowed under a collective bargaining agreement to take their paper files home and work from there at least one day a week. But two years ago, the agency’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review began using electronic files instead of paper files. By spring 2007, employees were complaining the transition to digital files meant they were allowed to work at home only once a month or less. ...

Marshall and Andy Krall, vice president of Local 1164, said they expect SSA to appeal the decision.