GSA signs telework agreement with union

The General Services Administration announced on Monday that it signed an agreement with a union representing agency employees to work from home, avoiding disagreements that scrapped negotiations with another federal union over the agency's telework policy.

Comment on this article in The Forum.Under the agreement, GSA employees who are members of the American Federation of Government Employees union can work from home if they follow GSA's telework policy, which it introduced in April. Included in the policy are requirements that employees pay for Internet broadband services to their homes to connect to GSA networks and obtain approval from their supervisers to telework.

Those issues scuttled talks last week with the National Federation of Federal Employees GSA Council. Talks between the NFFE council and GSA officials broke off when the agency refused to pay employees' costs for broadband services and the two sides could not agree on how much discretion GSA managers would have in deciding which employees could telework.

NFFE representatives objected to the provision that GSA managers could declare employees ineligible to telework if their performance was rated less than fully successful or if they recently had been disciplined. The union also objected to a provision allowing managers to suspend employees' telework privileges "if they fail to perform with flexibility and dependability," according to the GSA policy.

Jack Hanley, president of the NFFE council, called the performance and conduct rules arbitrary.

Under the GSA policy, agency employees must pay for all telecommunications and home office equipment, with the exception of a laptop computer, which the agency supplies. GSA does allow for exemptions to its telework policy on a case-by-case basis, however. Employees also must complete a telework technology plan form, which discusses equipment and how to connect to the agency's network, and submit the plan to GSA's Office of the Chief Information Officer for review. The office provides support to teleworkers.

Both NFFE and AFGE objected to a clause in the agency's policy that barred full-time union representatives to telework. AFGE and GSA have agreed to put aside the unions' request to change the policy until the Federal Labor Relations Authority rules on a case involving a full-time union official at GSA who has requested the right to telework. Until that case is resolved, the agency has agreed to allow the employee, who works in Region 10, to telework.

If AFGE wins the case, GSA has agreed to review the prohibition. If the FLRA finds in favor of the agency, union officials who serve up to 100 percent of their official work time for the union will not be allowed to telework.

GSA officials have advocated more use of telework.Former administrator Lurita Doan issued a challenge to GSA managers in September to have at least 50 percent of eligible GSA employees telework at least one day a week by 2010. Currently, 20 percent of eligible employees telework from home at least one day a week. About 86 percent of all GSA employees are eligible to telework.

"With AFGE joining forces with the agency on this telework effort, we should reach 30 percent by the end of this calendar year and be well-positioned to achieve the next scheduled benchmark of 40 percent by the end of 2009," said Chief Human Capital Officer Gail Lovelace in a press release. GSA did not make an official available for comment before this article was posted.

GSA does not allow employees who are required to be physically on-site to perform their duties or who must regularly handle sensitive data to telework. Last week, the agency said it was examining alternate arrangements for these employees.