From Bloomberg News:
A Biden administration appointee has agreed to lock in hybrid work protections for tens of thousands of Social Security staff, part of a slew of organized labor efforts that complicate President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to reshape the federal workforce.
The American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing 42,000 Social Security Administration workers, reached an agreement with the agency last week that will protect telework until 2029 in an updated contract, according to a message to its members viewed by Bloomberg.
The new deal, signed by President Joe Biden’s just-departed SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley, will let workers “maintain current levels of telework,” AFGE chapter president Rich Couture wrote. …
A US president "can't just set aside lawfully signed collective bargaining agreements, without the unions' agreement," Indiana University law professor Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt said via email. "The US government has to live up to its agreements, too.
41 comments:
That's dirty.
"The US government has to live up to its agreements, too." LOL. Ask the Indigenous peoples how that worked out.
Would those 42,000 employees retain union representation if all of their positions were reclassified as Schedule F?
Yeah these executive orders and creative last minute contract negotiations are not going to save telework at SSA. It might buy workers some time, but executive orders can be reversed on day 1, and the new Administration will fast track legal cases like this to a friendly Supreme Court pushing for a unitary executive constitutional framework.
There are any number of Judicial or Legislative means to render this contract null and void. But I also doubt it will be priority in the first year...so its not a totally wasted effort.
No, trying to destroy the government by needlessly and deliberately making it an undesirable place to work is dirty. And poor management. Trying to prevent that from happening is good governance.
Of course, I’m unsurprised another Trumper wingnut can’t see the difference.
So I’m not an attorney but I know many of you are. What weight does this have? How does an executive order compare to a CBA? I know the CBA binds the agency from itself, but it doesn’t bind the executive branch does it? If Trump wants to order SSA employee back to the office, how would that work? Does this go to court, the FLRA impass board, etc? What, if anything, does this action by the agency and O’Malley do?
The one great thing OMalley did on his way out ! Nice job
SSA and AFGE just put a bullseye on telework and it’s employees. Republicans will control all chambers of the government next year and they want to phase out Social Security benefits according to Mike Lee with Elon Musk concurring. This contract will up in court and meanwhile Republicans will try to tear down this once proud agency.
AFGE was asleep at the switch last time Trump was President. Operations
telework was terminated by Commissioner Saul and Grace Kim, as soon as a new contract started which gave them power to do so.
That power is taken away with the new contract in 2024. I’m glad AFGE was on top of the issue this time.
I'm afraid that @11:55 is mostly wrong but correct about the bullseye. All of those employees will be reclassified as Schedule F or the SSA HQ will be relocated to a remote outpost north of the Arctic Circle.
Bloomberg ran a follow-up article on the outrage related to this contract. The chair of House Oversight is now pushing legislation to force return to offices, and a prominent Hedge Fund mamager (and donor) called this agreement 'untenable' on X. Bullseye now in place.
Don't forget the government promise of forty acres and mule.
@5:20 The Bloomberg article is behind a paywall, but here is a link The Hill's version: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5020881-comer-show-up-act-federal-employees/
Untenable? It’s been working fine for months. And it worked just fine for years on end with even more telework before that. What a moron.
Musk and Ramaswamy forced O'Malley's hand, with their outrageous and insulting Wall Street Journal editorial. “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome"
O'Malley had to sign the contract to protect the agency and the beneficiaries. He knows that it would be disastrous for SSA to lose experienced, trained workers in large numbers, all at once, due to an arbitrary and unreasonable termination of telework.
Already had one.
From the AFGE contract - “Management has sole
discretion to change, reduce, suspend, or eliminate approved telework day(s) for any
employee(s), office, component, or agency-wide due to operational needs. Management also
has sole discretion to change, reduce, suspend, or eliminate approved telework day(s) for any
employee due to the employee’s performance.”
Smart move by Commissioner O'Malley and AFGE . Especially given the threats coming from certain figures in the incoming administration, in regard to federal employees.
SSA employees shouldn't be yanked back and forth between telework during Democrat Administrations, and no telework during Republican Administrations. There should be compromise, working between the aisle and bipartisanship , in the way federal employees are treated. The way it used to be in the 1970's.
: Sen. Joni Ernst is rolling out a proposal for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that would reduce government employee telework and sell empty government office space.
Yes, that is why. It has nothing to do with O'Malley being a politician himself. Keep drinking the O'Malley and AFGE Koolaid.
You are correct - seriously NO ONE ANSWERS THE DAMN PHONES at SSA - I have called a HUNDRED published phone numbers and most don't have VM or even names associated. No one returns or answers calls, If they are really working SOMEONE should be answering and responding. Similar with other agencies - but I can show phone records. All the way from the Commissioner's office and down No FOIA responses. No Procurement. No SB. NOTHING. If any of you are working PROOF IT.
I answer the phone all the damned time. From my office and at home. Sometimes I can’t take a call, sure. But that’s because I have about 60 hours of work to do each week, and I’m literally prohibited by law from working more than 40 hours per week. 99% of my colleagues are in the same boat. So knock it off with those ignorant horse-$**t and tell your Congressman to give us enough funding for adequate staffing.
I keep hearing that so many employees will retire or quit if telework is ended. This won't happen in significant numbers. If those too young to retire could find comparable or better jobs easily, they'd already be gone.
Nice try, Elon. That’s the old language, which has been adjusted under the new agreement.
Joni Ernst is a dribbling moron with all the intelligence and good judgment of an infant born to a crack-addicted alcoholic
I understand that we’re in the minority here in this late-stage capitalist trash-heap of a nation where sociopathic greed and selfishness are vaulted virtues, but most of us government employees aren’t here because we can’t find better (and much better paying) work elsewhere. We stick around because we find it meaningful to serve our brothers and sisters by doing difficult but important work, and because the joy of doing so outweighs the pain of our sacrifices.
An employee is obligated to show up at their official worksite at least once a week to get that locality pay. However, that requirement can be waived on an employee-by-employee basis, in perpetuity. Some agencies used this flexibility in a blanket manner for years beginning in March 2020. If not periodically reviewed, these exceptions are ripe for abuse.
However, Ernst’s investigations have uncovered various instances of federal employees using telework to get higher locality pay rates than they were entitled to receive, and in some cases, federal managers were enabling it. Several examples were outlined in the report.
The report states that Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigations have so far found that 23 to 68 percent of federal employees are receiving incorrect locality pay that is higher than it should be.
Well if folks do not have to work on-site it would make sense to use people in lower cost of living locations like Cleveland, Greenville, SC, Louisville, Florida, etc. After all look at the GSA rates for travel and the cost of living in the DC metro area. My best friend and her husband (both govt) moved back to the midwest after working in the DC. Later I spent a lot of time in DC - and the housing (and tolls) costs were SO much lower.
And looking at rates. GSA would not allow us to have lower rates for Remote than for DC, even though our people could be working from home or even just far less expensive DC - and throw in the fact that many people don't want to commute every week to DC... It was insane
Citation, please?
Lol. Senator Ernst sure does struggle with basic reading comprehension. I recommend reading the reports yourself rather letting yourself continue to be spoonfed her gross misunderstanding of them
The news was less celebrated among congressional Republicans and a co-leader of President-elect Donald Trump’s planned government efficiency commission, Vivek Ramaswamy. Elon Musk and Ramaswamy have repeatedly said they would seek to roll back telework usage at federal agencies, if not end it entirely, and have suggested the move as a tool to shed federal jobs.
“Thousands of federal employees just landed a work from home deal ahead of [President-elect Trump] taking office,” said House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on X.
“These midnight-hour maneuvers by the Biden administration are illegitimate and will be scrutinized,” Ramaswamy posted on Twitter. “All new proclamations made by executive fiat can be reversed by executive fiat.”
While presidents can change personnel policy unilaterally, those changes generally cannot be immediately enforced if they conflict with an agency and union’s collective bargaining agreement—officials must wait until the designated time to renegotiate some or all of the contract. The same cannot be said for legislation passed by Congress, however.
When Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20 and that new golden age of America begins, he’s going to tell the federal workers of this country who your viewers pay for to get back into the office and do their jobs or find another line of work,” Miller told Fox News’s Jesse Watters during an interview.
Ensuring federal workers work in the office has become a priority for Trump and his allies, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the businessmen selected by the president-elect to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).
Miller and Watters during their interview highlighted a federal worker who reportedly posted a picture of himself taking a bath while working.
“Grown men should not be taking bubble baths. They certainly should not be doing their work from home in a bubble bath,” Miller said.
“It’s so emblematic of the contempt that so many people in the swamp have for the people who pay their salaries,” Miller added.
I'm doing my Social Security job quite well from home, there is no need for me to commute for an hour each way, 5 days a week, to do the same thing in a crowded office. Not happening. Never again. This isn't the 1980's.
Telework is the way of the future and the future is now at SSA.The government should be a model employer, and advocate telework.
As for the guy taking the bubblebath, talk about painting with too wide of a brush. Those who highlight this isolated incident are trying to make the whole federal workforce look bad based upon one employee's ill advised picture.
I often work on cases beyond my 8 hour shift from home, working for free after I sign off. The work must be done, there is too much of it to possibly complete in 8 hours, , and I'm the one responsible for it.
Working beyond the clock is much more common among SSA employees who work from home, than the guy taking a bubble bath.
Thanks for coming here to blandly regurgitate some junk you heard on Fox and Friends this week!
It must be an empty existence having no thoughts of your own and letting your mind be fully scripted by Fox new and other television programming.
To relieve your stress you should take advantage of the perks of your job and take a bubble bath.
Every single study shows the longer the worker works from home the less they do. Every single one.
@7:23 PM, December 04, 2024 fine for employees maybe, but if customers/taxpayers cannot get ANYONE to answer phone/emails/other communications or work it is a failure
In reality, the various IG reports she is referring to say that 1-2% of staff may be receiving an incorrect locality differential. Jodi is either sorely lacking in literacy skills, or just plain making s**t up.
Congrats on being a rube/sheep, though.
Citation, please? I can only seem to find studies that show the exact opposite to be true.
So many of these supposed studies are not fact based. Most commonly they are surveys of employees. Are you more productive teleworking? Yes, I'm definitely more productive teleworking. That's emotion, not truth. People love to cite the distractions in the office - things like dreaded water cooler talk. There can be benefits to water cooler talk. You know, things like team cohesiveness. At home, the only cohesiveness gained is often with other family members. Does the place of business business benefit from happy families? Sure, a little bit. Would they likely benefit more from a connected team who has each other's backs? Absolutely!
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