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By: FEDweek StaffFor the second time in less than a week, federal agencies have been prodded to promptly comply with President Trump’s return to in-person work directive, as agencies and individual employees continue to try to parse out its impact on them.
Guidance that OMB and OPM posted Monday on chcoc.gov tells agencies to “prepare plans to expeditiously implement” the Presidential memo, setting a deadline for submitting such plans of February 7. Those plans are to “describe the steps the agency will take to revise telework agreements for all eligible employees including major milestones for implementation” and are to include “timelines for the return of all eligible employees to in-person work as expeditiously as possible.”
That follows initial guidance telling agencies to inform their employees that they “must work full time at their respective duty stations unless excused due to a disability, qualifying medical condition, or other compelling reason certified by the agency head and the employee’s supervisor.”
The new memo tells agencies to assess who may qualify under those exceptions but provides no further guidance on them. Agencies are to report to OMB and OPM on the standards they will use, however.
It further tells agencies to describe steps they will take “to bring any relevant Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) into compliance with the new PM, consistent with applicable law, to include an examination of the process by which agencies put new CBAs into place in the last four years.” While more than half of federal employees are covered by union contracts, the number falling under contract provisions specifying telework of certain amounts is unknown.
Also needing attention, the new guidance says, is whether sufficient working space would be available for all employees who would have to work onsite—given that there has been some space downsizing with higher levels of offsite work—including whether there are “options for sharing space” among agencies locally.
Individual employees meanwhile have been trying to assess their own status. Some employees believe they have a case under the disability or qualifying medical condition exceptions since telework commonly has been considered a “reasonable accommodation” for those with certain types of limiting conditions. But they say they have received no information on how they might make a case for continued telework.
Some other employees report that they have been told their offsite work status will change effective March 1, while many others report that they have had no feedback from management.
Employees say they are seeking clarity about issues such as whether “situational” telework—such as due to severe weather or for special assignments—will still be allowed and if so under what conditions; whether they need to act now to change their child care arrangements to account for added commuting time; and even whether they might face a choice of relocating or changing employment.
