Washington – President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that his new administration will challenge the agreement reached between the Social Security Administration and its union that would allow workers to continue teleworking through 2029.
during Comments on his South Florida propertyAt Mar-a-Lago, Trump blamed the Biden administration for what he said was a “terrible” and “ridiculous” compromise that would allow thousands of federal employees to continue working from home several days a week.
The president-elect said, “It was like a gift to the feds, and we're obviously going to court to stop it.” He said federal employees who do not return to work in the office will be fired.
“If people don't come back to work, come back to the office, they will be fired,” said Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term on Jan. 20.
Work-from-home policies for the federal workforce have come under scrutiny from leaders of Trump's newly formed administration Department of Government EfficiencyBillionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have said they are looking to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget.
“Requiring federal employees to come into the office five days a week will result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees do not want to attend, American taxpayers should not have to pay them for the COVID-era privilege Stay home,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in a op-ed For The Wall Street Journal last month.
again musk Claimed on social media Earlier this month “almost no one” employed by the government works in person, resulting in “thousands of empty buildings not just in the US, but around the world, paid for with your tax dollars!”
In his remarks from Mar-a-Lago, Trump was referencing the agreement reached earlier this month between the Social Security Administration and the American Federation of Government Employees. The deal will keep the agency's current telework policy in place until October 2029.
Under the plan, workers would be in the office two to five days per week, depending on their job, according to Bloomberg News. There are approximately 42,000 Social Security Administration employees who are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees.
The agreement was signed by Martin O'Malley, who was selected by President Biden to lead the Social Security Administration resigned last month run for president Of the Democratic National Committee.
The federal government employs more than 4 million people, including 2.2 million citizens. One august report The Office of Management and Budget found that as of May, about 54% worked every day in roles that are not eligible for telework. The agency said workers who are eligible to work remotely spend 61% of regular work hours in the office.
According to the Office of Management and Budget report, of the more than 2 million civilian government employees, 228,000, or 10%, were in remote positions where they were not expected to work in person on a regular basis.