A group of 44 Democratic senators on Monday urged Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul to reverse his decision to cancel telework for nearly 12,000 employees.
In October, the Social Security Administration announced that in November, it would end its six-year-old telework pilot program for operational components following the implementation of a new union contract between the agency and the American Federation of Government Employees, imposed by the Federal Service Impasses Panel earlier this year. The decision left roughly 12,000 workers, who for years have worked remotely from one to three days per week, scrambling to make alternate arrangements.
The agency has repeatedly cited long wait times for service on its 800 number as justification for ending the program, as well as a lack of an “evaluation plan” for the program.
In a letter Monday, 44 Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., urged Saul to “reconsider” the decision to end the telework program.
“We understand that SSA’s new contract with the American Federation of Government Employees has just come into effect, and that this contract conferred some degree of discretion to SSA management to set new rules for teleworking,” the lawmakers wrote. “We do not believe, however, that this justifies management’s unilateral decision to rescind telework entirely for the 12,000 affected employees . . . We are concerned that SSA is not providing sufficient time for workers to alter their arrangements to account for this policy change.”
The senators wrote that while improving customer service for Social Security beneficiaries is a laudable goal, killing telework is not the way to go about it.
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