Federal Worker Union Deals Don’t Protect Telework, OPM Says (2)

Federal employees can be required to report to the office full time even if their union contract prohibits it, according to a memo from the government’s human resources division.

Civil service law gives agency leaders the power to decide whether federal employees can work away from the office and for how long, Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell wrote in the Monday notice.

Collective bargaining agreements that allow for telework are “likely unlawful and unenforceable,” Ezell wrote. If agencies decide to negotiate with their unions over in-person work, they should do it after requiring employees to report to the office full time, he wrote.

President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are focused on requiring federal employees to work in the office. He signed an executive order on Inauguration Day calling for all federal staff to report to work sites full time.

More than one million federal employees—almost half of the civilian workforce—were eligible to work remotely at least part of the time as of May 2024, according to a Biden administration report. Around 10% of that workforce was entirely remote.

Trump on Friday directed agency leadership to reject any union contracts reached but not finalized with federal workers’ unions during the last 30 days of former President Joe Biden’s term.

Martin O’Malley, in his last days leading the Social Security Administration, signed an agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees that enables select employees to work from home part-time until 2029. AFGE represents 42,000 agency employees. Trump criticized the deal in December.

In Monday’s memo, Ezell asserted that telework policies fall within management rights. A management side attorney said that claim is legally dubious and the nation’s largest public federal employees’ union has vowed to challenge it.

Thomas Lenz, a private sector management-side partner with Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, said management rights clauses typically only apply to terms not addressed by the contract and that it’s not a “substantially reliable” defense for an employer.

“How, when, and where people perform work, whether it’s at a facility or at home is all within the basic terms of employment that need to be bargained over,” he said. “This seems to fly in the face of what labor law would consider to be appropriate.”

AFGE said in a statement that OPM’s memo would “not go unchallenged.”

“We will use every option available to us to defend our contracts and support the hardworking civil servants who serve our country with honor and distinction,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.

Federal agency heads have until Friday to set a deadline for employees to report to the office full time, Ezell and acting budget director Matthew Vaeth said in a previous memo. Ezell and Vaeth will sign off on each agency’s in-office work plan.