From Government Executive:
Less than 24 hours before Hurricane Laura made along along the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm, officials at the Social Security Administration told employees at its Lake Charles, La., field office that they would not be eligible for weather and safety leave.
Instead, employees forced to evacuate ahead of the hurricane were expected to work remotely from their hotel rooms on unsecured public Wi-Fi connections or take annual or sick leave, just three hours after the storm had left the area.
Joel Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3184, which represents Social Security workers in Louisiana, said management informed employees they would not be able to take weather and safety leave in a teleconference meeting Wednesday morning. .Although there is no written record of the leave denial, an IT employee sent all employees in the office instructions on how to connect to the agency’s virtual private network over public wireless Internet connections. ...
12 comments:
WFH is a double edged sword and somebody is always going to get cut.
Our FO has always been completely on the ball with weather-related leave. I have a hard time believing this problem goes further than that FO or possibly their DM.
@9:56 AM
Sure, part of the benefit of telework capability is that employees can more readily work during inclement weather, such as during snowstorms. But this isn't a case where the staff are griping about having to swallow the bitter with the sweet. These employees were faced with a massive and devastated hurricane that threatened and upheaved their lives, knocked out power and telecommunication systems, and were then told to put the public at risk of identity theft and data loss by forcing them to work on unsecured WiFi networks (in hotels, no less, which almost always have poor network security and often provide inadequate signal strength to work from one's private bedroom).
Pretty heartless if this is true.
anon@12:32pm,
The agency system uses an encrypted VPN connection. As a result, there really isn't any security issue there.
Suffice it to say, some managers are just jerks. So are many union officials, and some employees. The manager may even be having flashbacks to the "indignities" of having other offices to have to do all their work like happened during Katrina and Rita.
I can understand this policy when you are stuck at home due to a snowstorm or other weather emergency. However, when you have to evacuate yourself and your family, I think this is carrying the policy to an extreme.
Let’s be clear - afge - agreed to a contract that states that in the event that telework occurs - employees working at home would continue to work while employees in office would be granted w/s leave. I understand this may be an exception and perhaps the agency will work with affected employees...but this is hard to believe. Also worthy of noting is that employees will get w/s leave if internet is out. This sounds like afge is making issue of a non issue
If you are forced to evacuate your documented Alternative Duty Station (ADS) which is your home, that you showed in your telework agreement.... you should get weather and safety leave... period.
@6:54 am. I agree. But perhaps that would require folks to use common sense that they do not possess.
I could see local managers trying to pull this for clout in the ADO.
OHO employee here. i live in an area that was affected by a tornado in april. we were without power for 4 days and i used weather and safety leave for 2.5 days. our systems don't connect to hotel wifi. ridiculous.
It appears to be THAT office.
The telework agreement says you will only log in from your alternate duty station.
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