The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is pushing back against attempts to get Social Security employees to return to work in person, as opposed to “work at home” or “telework.”
At Social Security’s massive headquarters office in Woodlawn, Maryland there are more than 6,000 employees in that one location. All but about 1,000 employees are eligible for telework (work from home) options, according to Oren McKnelly II, executive counselor to the commissioner.
The Social Security Adminsitration is thought to have more telework employees than any other federal agency.
Following the lead of many other federal agencies, the administration is calling certain employees back to headquarters offices in Woodlawn.
But the federal union representing 42,000 employees at the Social Security Administration is urging the agency to safeguard telework. In short, nobody wants to report to work in person any more. The work-from-home furlough began in 2020 during the so-called COVID pandemic. It was much later that we discovered that employees working from home could not interface with Social Security’s IT network and many were not even able to connect with their office’s telephone systems. This left tens of thousands of Social Security employees “at home” but unable to perform much “work.” A small percentage of staffers, mostly upper echelon administrators, still reported to Social Security offices to work.
It has been argued by the union that telework from home does
not reduce the efficiency of employees who process applications and pay
benefits. Some find that contradicted by
the excessive wait times to get applications processed, get a hearing, or even
get Social Security on the phone. In recent years up to 6,000 disability
claimants died before receiving a determination on their claim. It can take up to 12 months to get an initial decision on a disability claim and there's an average wait of 285 days to get a hearing on a denied claim.
Social Security commissioner Martin O’Malley, in office for
only about one year, has made some historic strides in making the agency more
responsive and efficient. However, Mr. O’Malley
has just announced that he is leaving Social Security at the end of November
2024. President Trump will nominate a
new commissioner in 2025. For much of
Social Security’s recent history the top office of commissioner has been
vacant, the agency being run by “acting commissioners" or associates.
Other federal agencies have been quicker to admit that the 2020 COVID pandemic is past and have called at least a portion of their workforce back to the office. Social Security maintains that their employees must be protected by allowing them to work from the comforts of their homes. Now, as we go into 2025, the union seems determined to keep telework as the norm for Social Security workers. Like so many federal mandates, there is no sunset provision to end a practice once it is no longer required.
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