Posted on 12/26/2024 12:01:25 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for a return-to-office mandate for federal workers will face stiff resistance and union contracts that guarantee remote work.
President-elect Donald Trump warned federal employees last week that they must return to the office — or else “they’re going to be dismissed.”
The threat was the latest and loudest signal yet that Trump, his allies and Republicans in Congress are committed to ending a remote-work culture that became widespread for the civil service of 2.3 million during the coronavirus pandemic but that many conservatives now decry as an outdated taxpayer-funded perk that has hurt performance across the government.
A quick return to pre-pandemic — or even stricter — federal office policies is not likely to happen with the stroke of a presidential pen.
Trump’s expected return-to-office mandate faces furious resistance from federal employees, many of whom are covered by union agreements that guarantee work-from-home policies — including some contracts extended in recent weeks by outgoing Biden officials eager to blunt Trump’s impact on the workforce.
About 56 percent of the civil service is covered by collective bargaining contracts, many of which include provisions for telework, according to federal data and union officials. A record 10 percent of federal jobs now are designated as fully “remote,” with the official workplace an employee’s home or rented space far from an agency headquarters or regional office. The General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings, has also moved aggressively in recent years to shed costly excess office space as Biden officials kept pandemic policies in place.
“It’s in a lot of labor contracts,” Cathie McQuiston, deputy general counsel at the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal workers, said of the telework arrangements. “And at a lot of these agencies, the reality is, they don’t have the place to...”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ukraine, then Moscow.
Zelensky’s 2025 offensive needs fighters.
“The Congress shall have power...To raise and support armies...”
The principle of laziness will never be rationally acceptable or widely accepted.
Bust the union. If Reagan can do it, so can The Donald.
Bury them in paperwork. Anyone who won’t move back should be required to send a daily productivity report with every phone call, every sign on, results etc. no report, no pay, and have someone spot check the reports.
I have never read anywhere that productivity of work - from - home federal employees is monitored. It seems to be similar to the defense department being unable to pass an audit. Let’s see what DOGE does about that.
Nebraska does not want
50% of you...”Get your do-nothing butts back into the office”, the rest of you are fired.
Made a slight change in your command, hope you don’t mind.
I’ve been saying that for a long time. Western Nebraska is really lovely. Or send them to Baton Rouge where I hear there are really high rates of cancer because of all the horrible chemicals washing down the Mississippi.
Unions can not prevent layoffs.
The public employees union for the feds is an incompetent bunch anyhow. Some of the union officials have been busted for colluding with management.
The fix is simple. Prevent federal offices from using wi-fi or any other means of communications. We then prevent the Chinese from access to our systems and get rid of dead weight.
“a tall task.”???
How about “If you’re not back at your desk on Monday, you’re FIRED!”
Losing one’s income tends to focus the mind, especially when those useless people cannot find other cushy government jobs.
I hate seeing pajama wearing idiotsbin public.
For the Trumps of the world there are no tall tasks…there are just tasks.
Isn’t that almost exactly what Elon told the lazy Twitter ees when he bought the company?
You don’t tax business expenses
No it won’t be. Require them all to come into the office 5 days a week. Anybody who doesn’t is fired. Abolish some departments. Reduce others in size and move them to small town America. That will cause many more bureaucrats to quit.
What would Ronald Reagan do?
What did Ronald Reagan do?
Federal unionism was created via an Exec Order, and it can be abolished by one. I do not think it’s wise for AFGE to go against the grain on this one. If federal unions are done, so is AFGE.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.