Trump In-Office Mandate Hinges on Reading of ‘Management Rights’

President Donald Trump‘s push to force workers back into the office is fraught with labor law pitfalls and dependent on whether management has the sole discretion to set telework policy.

Initiatives to cut thousands of employees from the federal workforce rest on a directive that agencies crack down on remote work. While initial guidance from the Office of Personnel Management appeared to instruct agency heads to consider existing collective bargaining agreements with unionized workers when crafting the new policy, an updated memo issued Feb. 3 seemed to shift course.

OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell said that any provisions standing ...