Protesting Feds Want to Keep Teleworking Long After Pandemic Ended, But Lawmakers Raise Questions

Government employees who are union members prefer serving the public without having to commute.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) speaks during a march for Israel in Washington on Nov. 14, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Dozens of Department of Labor (DOL) employees showed up outside their offices in the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 19, but it wasn’t to perform their official duties; it was to protest and demand more telework time.

Their demonstration caught the eye of Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), who are now asking some questions that may make the protesters a little uncomfortable.

The protesting DOL workers are members of a local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union. Labor Department officials and AFGE negotiators have been trying for nearly a year to reach an agreement on how many days a week DOL workers nationwide must appear at their official duty stations.

It seemed that the talks were near an agreement that would require DOL employees to work from their offices at least five out of every 10 workdays. But in January Acting DOL Secretary Julie Su delayed implementation to allow further negotiations.

The DOL talks traced back to an April 2023 memorandum from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young to federal department and agency heads instructing them to take measures to “substantially increase meaningful in-person work in federal offices.”

Ms. Young’s directive was followed in August 2023 by White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients, who emailed department and agency heads, saying, “We are returning to in-person work because it is critical to the well-being of our teams and will enable us to deliver better results for the American people.”

Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) speaks at a press conference on vaccine mandates for businesses with House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Nov. 18, 2021. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Earlier in the year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that only about 25 percent of the civil servants assigned to 17 or the 24 biggest department or agency headquarters were showing up for in-office work.

The present absence of many of the federal government’s 2.3 million civilian workers from their offices was prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans since January 2020. Federal offices across the country were mostly empty throughout much of 2020 and into 2021 as part of the government’s response to the pandemic.

The problem now, according to Ms. Ernst and Mr. Franklin, is that too many federal employees are still spending more time working from home than in their offices. That means taxpayers are being stuck with rent and maintenance costs on millions of unused office space across the country.

Ms. Ernst and Mr. Franklin told Ms. Su in a March 27, 2024, letter that they want data on the costs of the March 19 protests by DOL workers who are members of the AFGE Local 948, including how many work hours were devoted to planning the event in the month before.

The lawmakers also wanted to know if “the DOL employees were paid—either through taxpayer-funded union time reimbursements or otherwise—for their protest against returning to the office, which they staged at their office?” And if they were paid, the lawmakers want to know, “What is the cost to the DOL, including but not limited to labor and resources of this protest?”

The two lawmakers also pointed out to Ms. Su that, “Clearly, these employees know how much more effective they can be when they show up in person ... If your employees can show up to the office to protest, they can show up to the office to work.”

A DOL spokesman in Boston was unable to provide comment for this article by the deadline.

On March 14, 2024, the Iowa Republican introduced the “Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act” requiring the government to track the total amount taxpayers are subsidizing federal employee unions. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which manages the federal workforce, compiled such data through 2020, but President Joe Biden ended the practice in 2021.

Mr. Franklin, who is sponsoring the measure in the House of Representatives, said in a statement that “Lingering pandemic telework policies cause backlogs and make it harder for Americans to get swift assistance. American taxpayers shouldn’t pay for empty federal buildings and get bad customer service. They also shouldn’t foot the bill for bureaucrats—who are supposed to be public servants—to help unions ‘organize’ against efforts to force federal employees back to work. This bill increases transparency and ensures the Biden administration provides a full account of taxpayer-funded union time.”

In addition, Ms. Ernst has been demanding for nearly a year investigations into 24 federal departments and agencies to gauge the impact of telework on the quantity and quality of government services.

In December 2023, Ms. Ernst also exposed that, almost four years after COVID-19 temporarily closed federal buildings, not a single government agency was utilizing even half their office space.