OPM director Kiran Ahuja was asked at a hearing for details on rates and impact of telework that she in general was unable to provide. Image: Ira Lichi/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffHouse Republican leaders on civil service issues are continuing their push-back against continued high levels of telework by federal employees, sending similar letters to two dozen agencies asking for details including their current rates, how higher rates have affected their operations, and their plans for the future.
The letters are the latest sign of skepticism about telework from GOP leaders on the Oversight and Reform Committee. They previously had signaled their intent to send such letters after a hearing in which OPM director Kiran Ahuja was peppered with requests for detailed information about the rates and impact of telework that she in general was unable to provide. That followed House passage early in the year of a bill to require agencies to return to pre-pandemic rates and to increase it again only by showing how that would improve their performance.
Since that hearing OPM has lifted the “maximum telework” status designation that had been in effect since early 2020 and OMB has told agencies to review their telework and other workplace policies as part of broader assessments of their “organizational health and organizational performance.” Those reviews are to last a number of months, however.
The letters ask agencies to explain what standards they are using “to determine how personnel policies and procedures were impacting mission delivery and outcomes” and to provide “documentation of all such evidence and any related assessments used to inform current and future policies.”
“To date, Biden Administration officials have only referenced the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey as evidence of the efficacy of expanded teleworking practices. This self-reported data point cannot be viewed as objective evidence of efficacy, nor should it be the sole basis for determining whether existing telework policies are in the best interest of the American people,” the letters say.
They also ask for information on how agencies are ensuring that teleworkers are “fulfilling their official duties”; “any adverse impacts expanded telework and remote work have had on any aspect of agency performance”; whether they are assuring that employees working remotely are being paid locality pay rate for their duty stations; whether any telework provisions in contracts with employee unions have “impacted or overridden agency processes or missions”; and more.
The letters also ask for information specific to telework practices in the national capital area, including numbers of teleworking employees, office occupancy rates and any plans to downsize facilities in light of current and expected future telework.
The letters asked for responses by June 1.
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