From Federal Computer Week:
The Social Security Administration is under fire from unions and congressional Democrats unhappy with the agency's pace in implementing the Biden administration's changes to labor-management relations, and many are seeking the ouster of the Trump-appointed agency leaders.
The American Federation of Government Employees wants a return to the bargaining table to renegotiate a contract that is based in part on limitations on union activity included in Trump administration executive orders that have since been repealed.
In rolling back those orders, President Joe Biden ordered agencies to bargain over a broader set of "permissive" topics.
"SSA is looking for any reason not to reopen the current contract," said Ralph DeJuliis, president of AFGE Council 220, which represents 29,000 SSA employees in field offices and telephone service centers. "SSA is, in our opinion, not following the Biden executive orders." ...
SSA is implementing Biden's executive order "responsively and responsibly," a SSA spokesperson told FCW. "Building collaborative working relationships with our union partners" is "critically important" to the agency.
SSA asked unions for input after receiving guidance sent out to agencies by the Office of Personnel Management. Agencies are required to review any collective bargaining agreement sections that implemented the rescinded Trump orders.
SSA's assessment should be done by April 23, the agency spokesperson said. ...
The agency and the union have made progress on official time -- the practice of permitting senior union officials to conduct union business on the job. Official time, which was nearly eliminated by the Trump executive order, has been temporarily reset to levels closer to those in the 2012 bargaining agreement, Bryant said. That temporary agreement changing that can last up to seven months. ...
I don't understand the delay coming from Social Security. I'm sure management understands the need to reopen offices as soon as practical. They need union agreement to do so. Let's get moving. Actually, I could understand a little more trepidation about negotiations coming from union officials than management since I'm sure union members have a lot of concern about reopening.
The current messaging from CDC to keep most things closed is confusing but temporary. Most of the population isn't yet fully vaccinated so we still need to keep things buttoned up. However, CDC's message will change as more of the population is vaccinated. That's happening rapidly. By the end of June, just about the only people who won't have been been vaccinated will be those who have deliberately refused it. I expect that the country will really start reopening by Independence Day and that just about everything will be open by Labor Day assuming there's no break through Covid-19 variant that makes current vaccines ineffective. We're not going to keep things closed just to protect fools who have refused the vaccine. Vaccine passports will help in the process. Those who refuse vaccines can yell all they want about discrimination against them because they lack vaccine passports. The vast majority of the population who have vaccine passports won't be listening. They're going to be enjoying getting back to their normal lives, not listening to cranks.
It's going to be impossible to keep Social Security field offices closed once we get everyone vaccinated who is willing to be vaccinated. There's too much pent up demand for Social Security services. No, Social Security hasn't been getting all its work done with its offices closed. I'm on the receiving end of these services. Don't try to tell me that things have gone great with offices closed. I know better.
Those who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 but remain frightened need to realize that to this point not a single person who has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 has ended up in the hospital much less died due to Covid-19. That's an incredible record of vaccine success. Unless something changes, once you're fully vaccinated against Covid-19, if you need to worry about any infectious disease, it should be our old friends influenza, salmonella, garden variety pneumonia, hepatitis, meningitis, etc, not Covid-19. We haven't significantly restricted our activities in the past due to these minor risks and there's no reason to do so in the future.
27 comments:
I think your point is well taken and has a lot of relevant facts. The only issue I want to dispute is that there have been 0 deaths in vaccinated people. Although the numbers are very very low, there have been vaccine breakthrough cases with death in Michigan and Washington state where data is reported, and suspected deaths in Louisiana. You are right that the chances of it happening are nearly zero, and is much much lower in a vaccinated person, the risk isn’t entirely eliminated.
It is not advisable to open field offices and hearing offices any time soon. No one yet knows for sure how long lasting the COVID vaccinations will provide immunity. I doubt it will be safe to open the offices until 2022.
Please remember that a significant portion of the population cannot receive the COVID vaccine due to medical and/or existing drug therapy issues. And by 'significant' I mean 1%, which is about 3 million people.
agree with 10:12 lets be truthful here.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/246-vaccinated-residents-diagnosed-covid-040100831.html
I got my vaccine as soon as I could. I feel better about being out and about, but am not going to indoor dining or movies. That being said, I have no problem going to take care of daily business with businesses that are taking some basic precautions.
I dont need a union to think for me, I can think for myself.
Let's not forget that telework was at SSA before the pandemic started, and it was efficient and successful.
There would be no reason to go back to 5 days a week commuting and clogging up the roads even if the virus goes completely away.
Telework is the way of the present and of the future. We can not and should not go back to the old ways of long commutes crowded offices, and exhausted employees.
I don't think the words "efficient and successful" have ever been associated with the SSA.
240 just how many people do you think work at SSA? Clogging the roads? Seriously?!? in the entire world of excuses, and smattering of SSA employees in each of 50 states are going to clog the road? C'mon man!!
@4:06
I support reopening in full, but to be clear, SSA is quite a large employer with just over 62,000 employees.
It is incredible and disappointing to contemplate OHO and district offices remaining closed after we reach the equivalent of "herd immunity" around June 1.
In person ALJ hearings should be resumed in June and continue thereafter in the normal course of operations.
Of course, risks will be present and will continue but those are reasonable risks, and life is about accepting the presence of reasonable risks in our activities. We can not live in fear of all risks that confront us.
People are working again in factories, pharmacies, retail and grocery stores, the local libraries, and community schools. people are attending sporting events. Congress is conducting business, and legislative staffs work at the Capitol complex.
Let's get back to fulfilling the purpose of Social Security --- service to the public.
Please open OHO up! I am an ALJ who is sick and tired of being home, not seeing claimants or reps or holding in person hearings. I detest these phone hearings.
5:39 the industries you list where people have returned to work, are not jobs that can be done remotely.
.Obviously most grocery store workers cannot telework and get their jobs done.
Most Social Security jobs, on the other hand, can be done quite well, even better, from home than from in the office.
A fresh, rested employee who walks into his or her home office and starts safely working, is more accurate and productive than a tired, frazzled employee who just sat in heavy and dangerous traffic for an hour before arriving at work.
And then that employee sits at an office desk and does the exact same work he or she could have done from home.
@5:39 You're assuming herd immunity by June 1st, which does not seem at all realistic. The field and hearing offices should remain closed until it is realistically safe for the public and employees to reopen them. Premature reopening of businesses and public venues has already proven to be a mistake given the rise of COVID19 cases. Can't see field and hearing offices reopening until 2022.
Three deaths in Michigan of vaccinated people.
https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/246-infected-3-dead-covid-19-michigan-despite-being-vaccinated
5:39: COVID19 Cases are up 20% nationally in the last 14 days.
Premature reopenings caused much of this surge.
The course which you advocate, reopening SSA, would make a bad situation much worse.
You seem to be simply ignoring facts and data which does not fit your narrative.
SSA would be unnecessarily placing their employees heath at risk, should they reopen offices while the pandemic is still raging. Who's to say one of the new variants will not infect even those who have been vaccinated?
To reopen under these circumstances would cause a wave of retirements, and the last thing SSA need is a retirement tsunami of experienced workers.
When AFGE gives their okay to return to my SSA office, I will willingly do so. Not before.
SSA management has already shown they cannot be trusted on the issue of telework. They abruptly ended telework for many thousands of SSA employees a year and a half ago, without any good reason for doing so.
As soon as management got the right to determine telework with a new contract, they abused their power.
The contract needs to be renegotiated with AFGE . SSA management should never be allowed too make unilateral determinations on telework again.
@1:39
"I dont need a union to think for me, I can think for myself."
I'm not sure you're making an accurate assessment of yourself. You appear to have misunderstood the comment you purport to agree with, and your understanding of collective bargaining appears to be about as shallow as a three-word pro-management hand-bill. People don't form unions to think for them. They form unions because collective bargaining enables workers to better protect themselves and advance their interests in the face of an otherwise enormous disparity of power between management and low level staff.
AFGE has already signaled their intention to maintain remote work for FO staff. FO managers, for the most part, have been doing the in-office work for the last year and AFGE will not be an advocate of a return to the office - and they have more of a voice than they did in 2020.
SSA leadership is in a “cone of silence,” which has been their approach since this whole thing began. The reality is that leadership inertia, plus resistance from AFGE means nothing moves forward until the fall, at the earliest.
7:06 so by not seeing the people that need the help you can do your job "better."
I never knew every single SSA employee had to walk up hill in the snow every day to the office fending off grizzly bears and mountain lions with nothing but a stack of paperwork.
When I read the comments like 706 here is what i see. I am too important to do what the rest of you do. I am special. Entitled to have things my way. If you do not cater to my every whim I will do less. Now bow and kiss my feet and thank me for getting overpaid for what i do.
I love how so many here don't think SSA can be trusted to make important decisions. Imagine how claimants feel. Their claims are evaluated by DDS alleged "doctors" who don't review their records and who attempt to deny as many cases as possible with absolutely no accountability. They then face the luck of the draw where they may get an ALJ who approves less than 20 percent of cases and will misrepresent the record (lie), ignore the law, rely on shoddy DDS consultants over opinions of long-term treating physicians, etc. You don't trust the agency to make decisions that affect you yet the fate of these claimants who may be destitute because of their inabiilty to work is in the hands of this arbitrary and capricious system where, fare too often, the deck is stacked against them. Even so, these folks don't whine nearly as much as you guys.
@6:59
Did you ask your Union "Leadership" why they didn't include telework in the most recent contract, but instead left the decision up to SSA "Leadership"?
9:25 you couldn't be more wrong and there's no excuse for your ignorance since this stuff is all public. Go read the FSIP AFGE/SSA decision from July/August 2019 (forget which). AFGE didn't give up on telework, the completely GWB/Trump appointed FSIP members chose to give SSA the full discretion over telework it asked for despite SSA providing no compelling facts for the move.
Similarly, as I've posted before, the FLRA (parent of FSIP) also found not that long ago that telework isn't even a negotiable thing in the first place (i.e., agencies can do whatever they want re: telework and don't even have to bargain over it at all)!
It ain't the unions' lack of fighting that resulted in these dumb outcomes. It was bad SSA management asking for nasty things and super pro-employer (really anti-worker) government officials at the FSIP and FLRA handing them the keys.
@10:07 Premature reopening of businesses throughout the country are going to be devastating. Way too early for it. Sadly, we will all suffer because of it.
I don’t understand why so many people are pushing so hard for the FO to open. When was the last time anyone on here went into a field office? Errors on both sides in this pandemic makes everyone’s job harder. In the old days, when a rep sent 7 copies of the same 1696, all the extras were immediately disposed of. Now, it’s multiple tracked items scanned into the system for others to clear. Also, when employees can’t get to notes documents or forms they need, they can rush and make mistakes. It’s much easier to operate with notes and case files in front of you. Every other major industry, including criminal proceedings, other administrative hearings, even congressional hearings seem to be functioning in a virtual world. Why can’t SSA? Why is it so much more difficult for everyone to adapt with SSA?
@8:44 - First, every other major industry is not necessarily functioning in the real world. Many people who don't work for the government have been going to work throughout this whole thing. In the state where I live, most state employees have been going to their offices for quite some time. Second, SSA doesn't function well in the real world so it shouldn't be a surprise it doesn't function very well in the virtual world.
This article is incorrect and regardless of opinions needs to be removed or updated. Multiple vaccinated persons have been hospitalized and at least one died of not more. Michigan...
@9:16 That is a blatant lie. SSA is one of the most efficient organizations in the country. It functions perfectly fine in the real and virtual worlds.
Y'all just like to complain.
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