The Social Security Administration on Monday told employees of its operations components that it would end its six-year-old telework pilot program on Nov. 8, leaving roughly 12,000 workers scrambling to make arrangements.
The email came one day after 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. That decision gave management “discretion” to adjust telework and staffing levels as needed, but union officials said they were caught off guard by the decision to simply get rid of telework altogether.
“Telework is in the contract; it’s not something that was not put in or not negotiated prior to the contract being implemented,” said Sherry Jackson, vice president of AFGE Council 220, which represents Social Security employees. “We had a long discussion about how telework works and how it will continue to work. The fact that you did that, that you took all that time from people and had employees with the expectation that it would increase, or at least maintain the status quo, it doesn’t speak well to what concern you have for your employees.”
Since 2013, 25%—around 12,000—of employees in Social Security’s operations components have been allowed to telework between one and three days per week, depending on the component. But in an email to all employees in the components, which include field offices, card centers, call centers, the workload support units and the program service centers, Deputy Commissioner for Operations Grace Kim said the program would end, citing increased workloads and backlogs.
“In recent years, Operations has faced a number of significant service challenges, including increases in wait times for customers on the 800# and in field off ..
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