Contact:
Tim Kauffman
202-639-6405/202-374-6491
[email protected]
WASHINGTON – American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley today issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s directive ending remote work arrangements and requiring federal employees to return to in-person work fulltime:
“This directive turns back the clock to before 2010 when Congress required federal agencies to expand telework by law. Congress took this action a full decade before the pandemic, recognizing telework as an important tool for agencies’ operational efficiency.
“To justify this backward action, lawmakers and members of President Trump’s transition team have spent months exaggerating the number of federal employees who telework and accusing those who do of failing to perform the duties of their jobs. The truth is that less than half of all federal jobs are eligible for telework, and the workers who are eligible to telework still spend most of their work hours at their regular duty stations.
“Providing eligible employees with the opportunity to work hybrid schedules is a key tool for recruiting and retaining workers in both the public and private sectors. Restricting the use of hybrid work arrangements will make it harder for federal agencies to compete for top talent. It’s also been a critical tool for federal agencies to maintain continuity of operations in emergencies, increase disaster preparedness, and improve efficiency. Hybrid work has been so successful that many agencies have been working to consolidate unused office space and sell off properties that are costly to maintain -- meaning there may no longer be enough office space to accommodate an influx of on-site workers.
“Rather than undoing decades of progress in workplace policies that have benefited both employees and their employers, I encourage the Trump administration to rethink its approach and focus on what it can do to make government programs work better for the American people.”
Additional resources:
Telework Myths vs. Facts Flyer
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