Fighting for Flexibility: Government Employees Rally to Protect Telework Options

Post-COVID pushback against returning to in-person work was swift and sustained.

Recent research finds that some workers may be softening their stance on returning to the office, though.

As PSHRA reported in January, a TalenTrust poll of more than 400 professionals found employees expressing “a distinct preference for remote or hybrid arrangements, but also a willingness to return to the office if required by an employer.”

For example, 50% of respondents in that survey said they prefer a fully remote work arrangement, with 33% indicating they would rather work in a hybrid environment. Just 17% said they would favor returning to on-site work on a full-time basis.

Still, 34% said they would return without question if given a mandate to come back to the office full-time. Just 19% said they would start searching for a new, more flexible job if their current employer issued such a directive.

A recent rally of Boston-based government employees, however, shows that not all workers are quite so willing to give up their telework options.

On March 19, a group of more than 30 individuals gathered outside the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston, “calling for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to protect their work remotely,” reported Hannah Loss of GBH News, “bringing a fight to the public over a policy their union has been negotiating for since last April.”

The American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 948 organized the event. AFGE represents 181 members in the DOL and 45,000 government workers in New England, according to GBH News.

“After federal employees started returning to the office in 2021, AFGE negotiated a memorandum of understanding to improve workplace flexibility and allow federal employees the choice to work from home more often,” wrote Loss. “But, in recent months, the federal government has started shifting away from telework.”

As Loss pointed out, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su sent a November 2023 all-staff email announcing that employees would soon be obliged to report to the office at least five days during each two-week pay period, as opposed to the two days they were previously required to work onsite per each pay period.

AFGE and DOL have negotiated to maintain more telework flexibility, wrote Loss. Having failed to reach an agreement on a contract, however, negotiations are now in arbitration.

“We’re just out here trying to preserve that memorandum of understanding,” Joe Oosterhout, union steward with the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, told GBH News. “We’re willing to negotiate, make changes to it. But as long as it’s bargained in good faith.”