A third-party arbitrator has ordered the Social Security Administration to restore telework for the 38,000 bargaining unit employees represented by AFGE, finding that the agency violated our negotiated collective bargaining agreement when it suspended all telework last year to comply with President Trump’s memo ordering a return to full-time in-person work.
Arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa ruled March 11 that SSA violated its 2019 contract with AFGE when the agency notified all bargaining unit employees in March 2025 that it was suspending all telework and ordering all employees to return to work in-person full time.
While the telework provision allows SSA managers to temporarily pause telework in limited cases, Espinosa agreed with AFGE that the agency violated our contract by effectively eliminating all telework.
“The agency’s breach of its commitment, which meant thousands of employees were mandated to forego approved telework and return indefinitely to full-time in-person work, clearly went to the heart of the parties’ agreement,” Espinosa wrote.
The arbitrator ordered SSA to restore telework to levels that existed prior March 16, 2025 – the date that all telework was eliminated – and cease and desist from further violating the negotiated telework article.
It’s the second time within a month that an agency has been found guilty of violating our contract by stripping workers of their negotiated telework benefit. On Feb. 18, a third-party arbitrator ruled that the across-the-board cancellation of telework for the roughly 7,000 employees we represent at the Department of Housing and Urban Development violated our contract and constituted an unfair labor practice under the Federal Service Labor‑Management Relations Statute.
While SSA has the right to appeal the decision to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, AFGE leaders are urging SSA to abide by the decision for the good of the agency.
“AFGE bargaining unit employees have proven for three decades, and especially since our March 2022 re-entry after COVID, that telework is to the benefit of the public by boosting productivity, recruitment and retention, and morale,” SSA General Committee Spokesperson Richard Couture said.
The absence of telework threatens the agency’s ability to recruit and retain the skilled workers it needs, the Government Accountability Office said in a January report.
“Beyond the legal obligation, the case for restoring telework has never been stronger, and we are calling on agency leadership to do the right thing for this workforce, the public we serve, and SSA's own future,” AFGE Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe said.
AFGE’s contract covers about 38,000 SSA employees represented by AFGE Councils 220 (field offices), 215 (hearings and appeals), 109 (payment centers), and 224 (quality review) and AFGE Locals 1923 (headquarters) and 2809 (operations center).
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