Lawmakers have been pushing government employers to bring workers back to the office on a more frequent basis.
Employees at the Social Security Administration (SSA) maintain that not only should the agency’s telework options not be cut, but that remote work options should be expanded to help address the SSA’s staffing woes.
As Government Executive recently reported, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) “has been sounding the alarm about [the SSA’s] staffing crisis for more than a year,” with the publication’s Erich Wagner noting that the Social Security Administration’s staffing levels are at a 25-year low, despite a growing number of beneficiaries.
In a recent piece on the AFGE website, the largest federal employee union laid out its case for expanding telework options.
“The pandemic has shown that a lot of work is portable and can be done remotely,” according to the union, which represents 750,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.
“Telework not only allows agencies to continue their missions uninterrupted, but also cuts down commute times, greenhouse gas emissions, fuel costs and overall stress. It serves as an effective recruitment and retention tool as more and more companies are offering this workplace flexibility. Remote work, where work is fully portable, saves the taxpayer money on things like office space, rent and utilities.”
“A General Public Crisis”
The nearly 90-year-old SSA is in “a recruitment and retention crisis,” according to AFGE, adding that a survey the union conducted in March of this year found 53% of SSA employees saying they’re contemplating leaving the agency within the next year.
Expanding telework options could help keep some of those employees as well as attract new ones, said AFGE Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe.
“SSA job applicants and current SSA employees want this flexible workplace benefit because it saves them money, increases productivity, work/life balance, overall quality of life and job satisfaction. Other employers are offering more telework and remote work,” LaPointe told AFGE. “We think SSA will need to increase telework and remote work access in order to be able to recruit the next generation and retain its current workforce.”
AFGE also says that SSA could also turn to telework as a way to increase staffing without incurring additional costs for brick-and-mortar space, keeping all its existing field offices open for the public while potentially doubling its workforce in each office. This increase would improve service and reduce backlogs while “[relieving] some pressure points that are currently present with one employee being expected to do the work of 10,” according to AFGE.
AFGE also pointed to the advantages that telework offers during severe weather. In March 2022, for instance, Social Security field offices returned to in-office operations with a two-day per week telework program. Subsequently, field office employees participating in telework programs continue working when their offices are closed due to inclement weather or other adverse conditions.
In upstate New York, for example, SSA offices have experienced full-day office closures since March of last year, which AFGE says would have cost SSA 10,000 hours of productivity, if not for teleworking options for these employees. According to AFGE, telework options also creates more than $340,000 in weather and safety leave that would have been paid to employees had remote work options not been available to them.
“The agency’s dinosaur approach to public service no longer works,” said Angela Digeronimo, a regional vice president for Council 220. “This approach has created the recruitment and retention crisis it finds itself in. This crisis is not just an employee problem; it is a general public crisis.’
03 July 2023
Category
HR News Article
