AFGE is challenging the Social Security Administration’s decision to unilaterally end employees’ flexible work arrangements, also known as alternative work schedules, as an illegal violation of our ratified union contract.
SSA announced the decision in an Oct. 5 email to employees – making clear that it was not a temporary suspension but a wholesale elimination of the program, which for decades has provided workers with greater flexibility to fulfil their 40-hour workweek while ensuring sufficient office coverage needs.
Workers on alternative work schedules either work a 4-10 schedule (four days a week, 10 hours each day) or a 5/4/9 schedule (9 hours daily split between 5 days the first week and four days the second week). But SSA said all employees must transition to a traditional five-day work week starting Nov. 16.
AFGE’s SSA General Committee, which represents more than 35,000 SSA employees nationwide, filed a national grievance Oct. 6 in response to SSA’s action.
“Only a small portion of SSA’s total workforce utilized an alternative work schedule, with the overwhelming majority of employees already working a regular five-day workweek. Smaller offices were not eligible. However, SSA’s email paints a false picture of an agency overwhelmed by employees with alternative schedules that it harmed public service, even in those components that do not interact with the public directly. None of it is true, and managers already had tools available in our contract to deal with temporary needs. Instead, SSA decided it would no longer honor an agreement it made in 2019 during the first Trump Administration,” the committee said in a statement.
Removing alternative work schedules will harm SSA’s ability to effectively serve the public by further depressing morale in a workforce that is already overwhelmed by historic staff vacancies and prior leadership actions that have targeted workers’ rights and benefits.
“This illegal action to eliminate alternative work schedules comes mere months after SSA inhumanely eliminated our advanced leave programs. Like with advanced leave, many SSA employees utilized alternative work schedules to make time to seek medical treatment and take care of loved ones without loss of pay. SSA’s action will fall harshest on those workers who will have to choose between getting paid or getting care. The cruelty of this move cannot be overstated,” the committee said.
In addition to fighting the agency’s actions through the grievance process, SSA union leaders also are calling on Congress to make needed legislative changes that will better protect workers’ rights under the law. Specifically, the union says Congress should:
Congress also needs to provide Social Security with additional resources so it can better serve the public, union leaders said.
“Additionally, we call on Congress to fully fund SSA by setting its administrative budget to 1.2 percent of annual benefit outlays, earmarked for human staffing, and to hire 20,000 new workers to replace the employees SSA paid to leave last year and to bring our staffing levels to meet current service needs,” the committee said. “Doing so will improve service to the American people who paid to be served by human employees when they choose to be served by human employees and eliminate SSA’s pretext for its cruel and inhumane actions.”
Written by OPEIU 2 AFL-CIO
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