A Washington Post op-ed quoted union leaders as offering a strong defense of federal employees who continue to work remotely despite the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a Federal News Network report in April, just 6% of federal employees work in the office full time, 30% work fully remotely, and 64% work in a hybrid arrangement. investigation In a survey of 6,338 federal workers, Jacqueline Simon, policy director for the American Federation of Federal Employees (AFGE), scoffed at the idea of taxpayer-funded federal workers returning to the office while scorning the Biden administration's push against remote work, she said in the survey. post Editorial.
As of 2023, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Quote There are 2.1 million civilians in the federal workforce.
“While employees are increasingly returning to the office, it's not very practical or popular, to say the least,” Simon said in the op-ed. “Employees have worked heroically throughout the pandemic, and the idea that we have to go into the office to please Jeff Zients is absurd.” (Related: Exclusive: Joni Ernst urges watchdog to investigate federal bureaucrats for 'abuse' of remote work)
Jeff Zients, Chief of Staff to President Joe Biden Urged Federal agencies announced in August 2023 that they would “aggressively implement” plans to resume in-person operations after COVID-19 subsides. speech He told the Economic Club of Washington that the federal government has not met “the necessary return-to-work levels.”
2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report He said 17 of 24 federal agencies were using less than 25% of their office space in January, February and March 2023. The government spends about $5 billion a year just on office rent and another $2 billion on operating the buildings.
A family walks past empty offices in a federal building during the government shutdown in Washington, DC, on December 27, 2018. – As members of Congress trickle back into Washington, there's little hope of an end to the government shutdown that began over a standoff with President Donald Trump over his demands for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, a funding cut to parts of the government is entering its sixth day. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
In his op-ed, Simon said he understood the “benefits” of working in person, including improved training for employees, but disagreed with the idea that federal employees have an “obligation to support downtown restaurants” by doing so.
Remote work remains popular among federal employees and managers, with 84% saying it helps “deliver high-quality work.” according to More than 80% of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees said they would face “personal hardships” if remote work policies were curtailed, according to the OPM 2023 report. investigation.
Additionally, remote work is becoming increasingly common across the economy, with the number of people working from home increasing threefold between 2019 and 2021. according to To the U.S. Census Bureau.
Federal agency remote work policies have come under intense scrutiny from Republican lawmakers in recent months, and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa on Thursday again called on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to review its remote work policies, citing potential misconduct and “ongoing community pay fraud.”
AFGE communications director T. Andrew Huddleston told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the FNN survey was misleading. statement OPM Director Rob Schreiber said, “54% of federal employees are not teleworking at all.” Huddleston added that many federal employees cannot telework, citing “nurses, corrections officers, border patrol agents, transportation security agents, etc.”
He also study According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study, 22% of federal employees will work from home in 2022, compared to 25% of private sector employees.
“Telework and remote work policies should be negotiated with unions and tailored to an agency's specific needs and the nature of the work, rather than pursuing a one-size-fits-all approach across government,” Huddleston told DCNF.
Responding to the huge expenditure on government offices, he said the union would be “happy if the government waived leases on vacant office space and allowed the assets to be put to productive use.”
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