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Understanding OPM’s Take on Trump’s Telework Restrictions
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Feb 4, 2025
Explore the implications of the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) guidance on President Trump's recent memorandum, which directs federal agencies to largely disregard collective bargaining agreements that facilitated telework. This video deeply examines the details of the OPM’s guidance and its significant impact on federal employees. Our detailed breakdown includes: An introduction to the context and significance of the memo A comprehensive analysis of OPM's guidance Insights into how these changes affect teleworking federal employees Predictions on the evolving landscape and potential legal challenges Join us to understand this pivotal change affecting federal telework policies and what it means moving forward.
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probably the primary
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characteristic of all the changes that
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are going on in government right now is
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how fast everything is happening we've
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commented in several videos on that
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previously and that hasn't changed if
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anything the process has speeded up of
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course one of the pressure points that's
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coming about for the federal Workforce
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is whether to accept or reject the
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Deferred resignation policies and
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program that have been put in place and
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that expires February 6 so it's coming
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up fast as we mentioned in another video
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there's a carrot and a stick approach
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being taken by the administration the
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carrot obviously is deferred resignation
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uh there's some factors in there that a
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lot of people would like including you
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can work at home or if for many cases
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you wouldn't have to work at all but you
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still get paid through September 30 at
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the end of the fiscal year which is of
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course the plan plan uh it's very
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convenient administratively to have this
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plan end on the very end of the fiscal
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year that makes sense another part of
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the stick is Tella work a lot of people
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for months now have been saying they
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like teller work they prefer working at
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home instead of going into an office and
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giv various reasons
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including I'm more productive at home
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that I am in an office I don't waste so
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much time in meetings I don't have to
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drive I'm not Tak tearing up the roads
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I'm not contributing to the congestion
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in in a big city etc etc so it's
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obviously very important to many people
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but another event has now occurred very
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again very recently uh regarding teler
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work last week late Friday night
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actually uh the President issued a memo
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and it was entitled limiting lame duck
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collective bargaining agreements that
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improperly attempt to constrain the new
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president
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well from the title itself you can tell
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that he was not favorably inclined
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toward the collective margeting
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agreements that have come up that are
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trying to constrain his ability to end
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telea work and what happened is at the
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end of the Biden Administration
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typically after the election a number of
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agencies apparently negotiated contracts
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with unions representing bargaining unit
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employees in that agency that allowed
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them to continue teller work under the
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existing policies until at the end of
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the Trump Administration in 2029 what
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this executive order said that came out
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or this actually was a memo not an
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executive order is that's not going to
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happen as typically happens in
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Government after the president issues a
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memo or an executive order OPM often is
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issues guidance telling agencies how to
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implement this new guidance that they
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have been given by the president that's
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what happened in this case OPM has now
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issued that guidance and that concerns
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teller workk and will you be able to
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continue using teller work if you're
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already on that kind of a program
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especially with regard to using teller
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work as a result of or the benefit of a
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collective marketing agreement that
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gives you that right in a nutshell this
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is my phraseology it's not opms what the
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OPM memo says is forget about it it's
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not going to happen there are exceptions
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of course but that would be very limited
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and not apply to most of the people now
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on Teller work so this is the stick part
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uh trying to get people to resign to
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reduce the size of the federal Workforce
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so the upm memo says it makes these
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points in defense of its position on the
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issue and this gets down into labor
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relations case law Labor Relations law
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itself a labor relations statute and how
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it's been interpreted in applied in the
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past now there's something in the labor
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relation statute called manif rights
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that just interpreted differently at
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different times by different
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administrations by courts by the federal
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labor relations Authority and in effect
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what is happening now is OPM is defining
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the term management rights and
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specifically as it relates to teller
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work so they make several points that
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affect you and your ability to engage in
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Tork it says Tork levels and exclusions
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of positions from Tork are reserved as a
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management right in other words they're
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saying your agency has the right to
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decide which positions can be using Tela
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work and which positions cannot use Tela
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workk F precedent that's the federal
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labor relations Authority indicates
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management Rights include the right to
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determine the frequency of teler work
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now they're referring to past decisions
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decisions that have been issued in past
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years not something that's come about as
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a result of the current issue that
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you're concerned about now an agency
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also has the right to exclude positions
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from teller work so they're making the
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point if your agency says your job is
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such that we can't have you on Teller
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work that's their right to make that
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decision the Union contract doesn't
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control it labor agreements that
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conflict with management rights are
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unlawful and cannot be enforced and
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finally even if the agency head has
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approved a contract unlawful provisions
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of a contract still cannot be enforced
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so what the president's memo the OPM
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guidance are working together to say in
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effect your agency has the right to
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decide whether or not you can engage in
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tare in other words can you stay at home
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and work there instead of going back to
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the office wherever that may be the
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collective bargaining agreements that
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are negotiated have been negotiated
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according to president Trump were
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designed to allow employees to continue
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using teller work what this series the
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president's memo the OPM guidance are
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saying is that these Collective
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marketing Agreements are not enforceable
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even if the agency had approved it
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especially those that were approved
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prior to the Trump Administration taking
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office are not enforceable we're going
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to ignore it we're not going to allow
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that contract to stop us from limiting
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the use of Tork in the government so now
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in effect OPM has laid down the law so
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to speak uh on this issue and most
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people who are now using Tela workk are
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not going to be able to in the near
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future the program is evolving so that
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you've got a chance taking deferred
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resignation program use that if you want
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or if you say it work then you're
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probably not going to be able to stay at
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home if the agency gives you a direct
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order to come to work at the office
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effective next Monday then that would be
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your obligation to meet that and show up
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at work if you don't then you can find
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yourself subject to
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termination and I suspect that's going
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to happen at some points in the
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government what's likely to happen afge
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and other unions are coming out and of
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course they don't agree with it their
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position is we negotiated these
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contracts we negotiated with management
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of the various agencies these were put
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into place as Allowed by the Civil Serv
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service reform act or 1978 under the
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Labor Relations portion of that law and
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we intend to get this to be enfor this
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is going to be enforced and we were
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going to fight it they'll probably end
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up first going to the federal labor
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relations Authority that's the agency
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that typically resolves labor disputes
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like this one problem the general
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Council of the federal labor relations
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Authority that position is empty that
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position has been empty since 2 17 hour
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or why doesn't make much difference the
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fact is it's now eight years that there
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hasn't been a general counsel at the flr
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or 7 and a half years the federal labor
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relations Authority can't issue an
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unfair Labor practice if there's no
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general counsel in the office for a
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while under President Biden there was an
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acting general counsel the GAO came in
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and told the flra this is illegal this
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person has been in the job too long it
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violates the law and nobody has sent
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been confirmed by the Senate to take
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over that position so usually the Unions
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would go to the federal labor relations
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Authority and say this agency is
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violating the labor Elation statute and
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we want you to issue an unfair Labor
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practice and as a remedy for this you
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should direct the agency to allow
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employees to go back to telea workk as
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outlined in their collective bargaining
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agreement but since the flr can't issue
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unfer labor practices that's going to be
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a problem that doesn't stop the unions
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from filing an unfair Labor practice it
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does probably result in and not going
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very far for a period of time that
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doesn't stop the unions from going into
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court and my guess is they will and
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they'll probably ask for a court to
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issue a requirement that the agency
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allow people to go back to using Tela
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work because of the collective
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bargaining agreement I don't think
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anybody knows how that will come out the
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government will probably depart of
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Justice will if that goes to court
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defend what the agencies are doing what
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the president and what OPM have provided
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guidance on the unions will make the
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opposite argument that what we are doing
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what the employees are doing are
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completely legal and what they're doing
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the government is illegal and we want
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you to put a stop to it so that's where
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we stand for those of you who've been
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around a little while you may remember
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that the mirit assistance protection
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board went through a similar process
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again back in 2017
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there wasn't a quorum at the
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mspv so all the employees appeals that
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would normally go to the mspb still went
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there but no decisions were issued
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without a quorum they couldn't issue a
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decision by the time the mspb got a core
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there was something like 35- 3600 cases
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piled up and they're still unraveling
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from that so and it's taken quite some
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time it seems to me that this is a
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similar situation because you've got an
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agency mspb in one case f in the other
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case that doesn't have a full Quorum it
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doesn't have all the positions that need
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to be filled so it can carry out its job
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what its mission is a Congress can fix
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that they can confirm a general counsel
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if one is nominated to my knowledge
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president Trump hasn't nominated one and
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if to be mellian about it if you don't
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want the FL to be able to file or to
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issue un for Labor practice decisions
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why would he nominate somebody the
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approach may end up being let's not
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nominate a general counsel let's just
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let this play out in the meantime you
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can't go back to work and Tork using
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Tork you'd have to go into the off we
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don't know how this is going to play out
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we do know that it's an issue that
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affects a lot of people there's a lot of
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emotion behind it people are raising
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arguments there's not enough government
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space because we haven't been using the
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buildings GSA has terminated some leases
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Etc we don't know exactly what the plan
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is presumably just from looking at it
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from a third party standpoint the
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government is trying to get rid of a
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bunch of people maybe that's part of the
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plan we'll see as events occur uh
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fitsmith will keep providing you
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information as it becomes available in
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the meantime we wish you the best of
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luck and making a decision that's right
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for you under the Deferred resignation
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plan thank you for watching and good
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luck in making the right decision
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