Statement from Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, about Agency Reentry
“I am very pleased to share that we have successfully reached agreement with our three labor unions on our reentry plan.
This will be a significant step toward improving access to our services as we implement this plan.
I want to thank our labor representatives for working with management to achieve this outcome, which will help us better serve the public.
I also want to thank the public and our employees for their patience during this unprecedented time.
I know the public will have questions about what this means to them.
For now, you should continue to reach us online at www.socialsecurity.gov or by calling our National 800 Number or your local office. We will let you know when we are able to restore additional services.”
Jan 20, 2022
SSA Reaches Reopening Agreements With All Three Labor Unions
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21 comments:
Employees age 60+ should be exempt from coming back to the office, as we are at a higher risk if we get COVID. I hope AFGE and SSA took this into account.
I am not willing to take that risk. Either for myself or for those I am close to at home, who could be infected by me if I pick up COVID in the office.
I am now working on filling out my retirement forms. I want to be ready to beat the retirement rush, if we are called back with no age exemptions.
I wonder when the date for return will be? I also wonder what the level of service will be like. I am fine with going back, but we only have 4 employees left after retirements and resignations during the pandemic so I assume I'm going to lose all ability to work things on my desk like allowances and appeals.
I wonder how "open" we will be?
Who had 1st post in the pool?
The MOU states March 30th pending any unforeseen events
It is likely that all will be revealed by the end of the month.
I am guessing the target for reopening is one of the following:
3/1
3/17 (two year anniversary of FO closure)
4/1
It is likely that walk-ins will not be permitted until later in the year, if at all.
@ 10:04...were there any significant changes to the original plan that was leaked in November? As I recall that plan permitted FO employees to continue WFH two days per week, but that union was fighting for three days per week. Did they split the difference and agree on five days per pay period?
There's a lot that still has to be negotiated. Most of the questions so far by commenters don't have answers yet. But the MOU lists 3/30 as the latest day for re-opening, and states that employees must have 30 days notice of their return to the office. The only other thing of note I saw is that there will be no "core days" (i.e. a day where everyone has to be in the office together for meetings/trainings/etc.).
I am confused. How is there "still a lot to be negotiated" when the ACOSS just announced that the agency had successfully reached an agreement on the re-entry plan with the unions?? The would seem to imply that all of the details have been finalized and agreed upon.
11:12 the MOU lists 3/30 as the reentry date, not the latest possible. It also states "no core days for telework", not office days. It appears that all negotiations are done and the full plan will be released in the coming days/weeks.
@ 11:50...how many telework days per week for FO employees?
manager here. anyone have a copy of the MOU? We are always the last to know :(
11:56 it doesn't say. The Commissioner had previously proposed "at least 2" I believe, but I'm not sure where the negotiations landed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews
Based on the MOU - there will be no telework days by default
11:12 thank you for your input. Could you clarify the comment "no core days for telework" not office days?
11:12 here. Yes, there is still a LOT to be negotiated. The purpose of this MOU (I have the one with AFGE) is to get an agreement regarding a deadline for re-opening: March 30th. SSA cannot then accuse AFGE of dragging their feet in an attempt to delay re-opening indefinitely. It's set. So everything else to be negotiated prior to employees coming back better get done pronto. It doesn't surprise me that the agreement with NTEU is more thorough and comprehensive than that of AFGE. AFGE leadership is awful and their relationship with SSA negotiators is toxic. That's why NTEU members get better agreements. Theirs is much more collaborative than combative.
Also, "Core Days" have always been defined as days in which everyone needed to be in the office and no telework was allowed. I don't know why people are confused there. The MOU says there are no longer any core days. Seems pretty clear.
Also, there's nothing in here to counter or supercede the reentry plan, and instead there is language that the reentry plan will be used. That means for the hearing offices that OHO management, legal assistants, and ALJs will be eligible to telework 3-4 days per week, and decision writers 5 days per week.
I work for SSA and never heard of “core days” so thanks for the explanation. Probably never heard of them because prior to the pandemic, no one in our office was allowed to telework at all.
No continued 100% work from home for older employees? Per the CDC, "More than 81% of COVID-19 deaths occur in people over age 65. The number of deaths among people over age 65 is 80 times higher than the number of deaths among people aged 18-29."
Core days were only used by components such as OHO and OQR. Operations does not use them.
That would make sense as to why I had never heard of "core days" prior to this document. If operations doesn't use them, why is the language included in the MOU? I swear this agency is the wild west, they just do whatever and then just leaves you to try and figure it out.
I work in PSC 7 , we've had "core days" for years.
Ever since they started telework, like 5 years ago, we were told we can't request Wednesdays as a telework day. Wednesday was our core day.
Meetings and short training classes were scheduled for Wednesdays.
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