The union that represents thousands of federal employees declared that it will oppose any attempt by President-elect Donald Trump to thwart an arrangement reached under the Biden administration that would permit thousands of federal employees to continue working remotely.
“It’s ridiculous,” Trump stated Monday in reference to the telework protections pact that Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley signed with the American Federation of Government Employees prior to his resignation last month, extending them until 2029.
Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump described the agreement as “very terrible,” claiming it is obstructing his efforts to manage the federal workforce, including the termination of remote work. He declared that he will try to get the regulation overturned in court.
At his first post-election news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump stated, “If people don’t return to work, they’re going to be dismissed. Someone in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver of that, so that for five years people don’t have to come back into the office.”
He said, “They just signed this thing.” Trump went on to say, “It was like a gift to a union, and we are going to be in court to stop it.”
AFGE National President Everett Kelley stated later on Monday that the union would oppose any attempt to remove those safeguards.
“The federal government’s collective bargaining agreements are legally enforceable and binding. We have faith that the incoming administration will fulfill its commitments to uphold legitimate union contracts. We will be ready to defend our rights if they don’t, Kelley stated.
“Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency, maintain continuity of operations, and increase disaster preparedness,” he stated.
Requests for comment were not immediately answered by SSA or the White House.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two of Trump’s top advisers who are expected to spearhead initiatives to cut expenses and improve government efficiency, have made ending work-from-home a main aim.
After Trump won the election, Ramaswamy told Tucker Carlson that he thought cutting off remote work would result in a large number of resignations.
Ramaswamy told Carlson that he would thin out the federal bureaucracy by 25% if he simply informed them they had to return five days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
According to Kelley’s remark, “There is no truth to the rumors of widespread federal telework and remote work.”
“More than half of federal employees cannot telework at all because of the nature of their jobs, only ten percent of federal workers are remote, and those who have a hybrid arrangement spend over sixty percent of working hours in the office,” said Kelley.
During the press conference, Trump praised Musk and Ramaswamy’s efforts, stating that their goal is to “eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud.” I’ll give you a brief advance report, but all I can say is that they’re discovering things you wouldn’t even believe. Therefore, we hope to save perhaps $2 trillion.
Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., is among many who support employees going back to work. Last month, she told reporters that our community would become more vibrant if more government employees returned to work in the city.
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