The AFGE General Committee wanted to provide a quick update.
1. National Telework Grievances: In response to the telework terminations, first in OCIO and then in the rest of the agency, the Union has filed an updated national union-management grievance to address the new facts (available upon request). We are seeking a decision within the contractual period of ten days, and will move the case ahead as expeditiously as possible. The original grievance is currently pending arbitration. We will consider the full situation after receipt of the agency’s decision in the updated case and will keep you updated. AFGE General Counsel’s Office is representing the General Committee in both matters. In the meantime, employees should be encouraged to keep records and logs of the costs they are incurring as a result of the return-to-office order as evidence for potential relief/damages, especially commuting costs, child care costs, etc. More soon.
2. EEO Issues: The Union asserts that the Agency’s closure of the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity (OCREO) is not compliant with applicable law, regulation, and contract provisions. We have raised the issues with the Agency to give them an attempt to cure the issues, which they haven’t. We are exploring all options to bring the Agency back into compliance should they not do so voluntarily. What we know at this time is that Sean Brune, Deputy Commissioner for Mission Support, has been designated as the Agency’s EEO Director, in an attempt to bring the agency into compliance with EEOC regs that require an EEO Director that reports to the Agency head. While that appears to check a box for the EEOC regs, as a practical matter, we do not believe that position (which oversees an already large component) will afford the time and attention necessary to effectively oversee the Agency’s EEO program. Additionally, we don’t know how much staff have been assigned EEO functions, whether they’re trained, etc. This is especially true for trained EEO counselors, for which we have sought information on whether there are any left after OCREO was closed and who they are. EEOC regs require that the Agency post the names, phone numbers, and addresses of its EEO counselors, unless the process is centralized, in which case a phone number and address are required. The Agency has only provided an anonymous email address: ssa.eeo@ssa.gov. Further, the Agency has not provided actual notice of who is overseeing the National Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator process, which still exists, and how many staff are assigned RA functions. Again, only an email address has been formally provided to the Union (^OMS Reasonable Accommodation). The Acting Commissioner has said that managers should be “permissive” and “use common sense” in approving RAs in the meantime.
As we explore options, it is critical that employees adversely impacted by the OCREO closure speak to their locals/councils, provide them with contact information and at least a summary of their situation, and permission to share that information with the General Committee and its agents. Some of the situations we are interested in are as follows: employees with discrimination allegations who needed to initiate an EEO counseling request but did not have an EEO counselor to contact; employees with pending EEO counseling requests and/or ADR mediation cases that became stuck because of the OCREO closure; unnecessary delays in the processing of EEO counseling requests due to OCREO closure; failure to initiate an investigation for an EEO complaint because of OCREO closure; failure to receive a timely Report of Investigation (ROI); agency requests for extensions of timeframes due to their inability to meet timeframes because of the OCREO closure. This is not an exhaustive list.
Time is of the essence. Please seek out this information and report it up through appropriate union channels.
3. Ongoing Reorganizational Issues: Approximately 2,700 SSA employees took the VSIP. We don’t yet know how that was spread across components, but will find out. The GC will be negotiating over VERA and VSIP very soon, so please share adverse impact issues with your councils. We also have finally received confirmation as to which components have been deemed as “mission critical” by the Agency, which are as follows:
Operations (DCO):
*Field Offices (FO);
*Teleservice Centers (TSC);
*Program Service Centers (PSC);
*Workload Support Units (WSU);
*Office of Central Operations (OCO);
*DCO Disability Processing Unit (DPU)/Disability Processing Branch (DPB) & Special Disability Unit (SDU);
*DCO Area Director & FO; and
*Other DCO Positions: Public Affairs Specialist (PAS), Area Systems Coordinator (ASC), Area Work Incentive Coordinator (AWIC)
Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS)
Office of Hearings Operations (DCHO):
*Hearings Offices; and
*National Service Delivery organization except Front Office and Administrative Staff
• Office of Quality Review (OQR) field sites
• Office of Appellate Operations (OAO)
• Office of the General Counsel (OGC): Office of Program Litigation (OPL)
• Identified Reemployed Annuitants (RA) (At-will Re-Employed Annuitants who receive an annuity from the Civil Service Retirement Fund)
• Employees on Intermittent work schedules (INT)
The Agency “has not identified any other units as mission critical. The Agency has not compiled a list of non-mission critical units.” The Union is pushing for that list.
More soon.
AFGE GENERAL COMMITTEE SPOKESPERSON
