As we are all aware, the Governor communicated, via email, his desire for State employees to return to the office for at least some portion of the work week. He has identified two dates for returning to the office: June 1 for front-facing customer service and July 1 for all others. This does not mean the end of Telework, the Governor specifically identifies the Interim Telework agreement and states “we will continue with the pre-COVID-19 interim telework guidelines, which allows eligible employees, in the covered bargaining units and others including managers, to work from home up to 50% of the time with manager approval”.
What strikes us is that Gov Lamont’s return to the office directive appears to be more of a public consumption announcement as opposed to a logical policy position. He presents his “let’s plan for our new normal work environment” while unveiling a plan that simply states, let’s get back to 2019. What he ignored is the obvious conclusion that high-frequency telecommuting should remain as the “new normal”. It ignores that the telecommuting directives we have been operating under were actually exceedingly successful and far more efficient than the common office structure he wants us to revisit. Even if we pretend the virus is no longer highly contagious and can no longer lead to serious health consequences, his “going forward” plan should recognize that we accomplished a tremendous amount of positive work-product while telecommuting, while at the same time reducing traffic congestion and lowering our carbon footprint.
That aside, the Telework Interim Agreement that the Governor addresses in his email is outdated at this point. That agreement was designed as a way of testing Telecommuting; we no longer need to test it, telecommuting has passed the test. Telecommuting works!!! We expect that those who were able to telecommute last year will continue to telecommute at least 50% of the tme after July 1. Many were already working a hybrid schedule consisting of some in office work combined with telecommuting, such schedules should continue. A&R and a few other unions will be meeting with the Office of Labor Relations very soon to negotiate the Interim Agreement into a much more relevant document. Management’s prior assertions that telecommuting was impossible or too complex to manage have been shown to be demonstrably false. It is our intention and our hope that we will have a better agreement with the Governor on the future of Telework now that all of our employees have proven that it is a success.
-5/13/21