Numbers Down but Telework Up

About 119,000 federal employees were teleworkers in 2005, with about 70 percent of them teleworking at least one day per week, OPM has reported. The total is down from the previous report showing about 140,000 teleworkers in 2004, but the new report narrowed the definition of who is a teleworker to exclude those who do it only occasionally; the number of those who telework at least weekly rose by about 1,300 year-to-year, OPM said. However, the number of those “core” teleworkers is still only about 6.6 percent of federal employees, despite years of pushing by OPM, GSA, Congress and certain outside interests to increase the use of telecommuting. Pending legislation in the Senate (S-1000) seeks to boost teleworking by effectively creating a presumption that employees are eligible and compelling an agency to show that they aren’t, rather than the current arrangement where agencies must determine that employees are eligible.