Trump-Ordered USPTO Telework Crackdown Violated Labor Practices

The US Patent and Trademark Office ran afoul of labor laws when it stripped telework privileges for employees who are part of a union bargaining unit, an arbitrator ruled.

The June 8 award was an across-the-board win for about 160 workers represented by the Patent Office Professional Association who lost those privileges when agency brass issued a May 19, 2025, Telework Eligibility Notice. Revoking the privileges violated a handful of union-negotiated memorandums of understanding, “effectively terminating routine and remote telework,” Arbitrator Blanca E. Torres wrote.

That, in turn, violated several provisions of a statute that defines unfair labor practices within federal government, she said. She ordered the agency to restore the telework and remote work that existed before the notice.

Torres also ordered the PTO “cease and desist from implementing changes inconsistent with negotiated agreements and bargaining obligations.”

The notice was issued as part of the Trump administration’s bid to corral federal workers back into offices—an initiative announced in the first month of the president’s second term.

“The employees needed a little morale boost,” said Richard Hirn, an attorney who represented the POPA bargaining unit, in an interview Tuesday.

The PTO declined to comment on the award.

Hirn added that at least five arbitrations have ruled against an agency on telework. “I have yet to hear one where the union’s lost,” he said.

The award won’t take effect for 30 days, during which the agency can appeal to the Federal Labor Relations Authority. FLRA decisions are then generally appealable to the US courts of appeals.

The agency employs more than 14,000 people. Thousands of those were patent examiners represented by POPA who purportedly had their collective bargaining rights revoked by the agency in August 2025. A lawsuit challenging that revocation is currently pending in district court. The employees involved here were mostly not affected by that revocation and aren’t involved in the litigation.