NTEU Defeats Agency Proposal to Cut Telework 

Employees at the Federal Election Commission will be able to keep their expanded telework program after the Federal Service Impasses Panel rejected the agency’s plan to scale it back. 

The order, issued last week after NTEU and FEC could not agree on terms during contract negotiations, is a significant win that makes clear agencies can’t arbitrarily cut telework without a strong justification. 

“FEC tried to justify its proposal to decrease telework but it’s clear employees can perform their jobs efficiently and effectively from a telework location,” said Kimberly Hart, President of NTEU Chapter 204 (FEC) which represents frontline employees at the agency. “I am thrilled that employees can keep their current schedules—and so are they.”

The FSIP’s order said the agency’s own analysis concluded that increased telework of up to seven days per pay period “benefitted the workforce and the agency.” 

The FSIP ruled on other workplace flexibility issues at FEC as well: a hoteling proposal from the agency was rejected, and NTEU’s proposal to limit each agency division to one “core day” per week, not on Mondays or Friday, was accepted. 

Read news coverage of the victory.