NTEU Files COVID-19 FCC Labor Grievance, Otherwise Praises Government Response

FCC workers and their National Treasury Employees Union praise the agency's precautions to protect employees from COVID-19. But NTEU filed an unfair labor practices grievance against the agency Monday over continuing contract negotiations during the pandemic, President Tony Reardon emailed us. The FCC acted faster than some other federal agencies, but critics told us none has responded quickly or well.

“Bargaining should be suspended until the pandemic eases and stay-at-home orders are lifted, and we can return to face-to-face bargaining as both parties agreed to in the ground rules,” said Reardon. NTEU and the FCC are negotiating a new contract. Such grievances can lead to an investigation by the Federal Labor Relations Authority and administrative law hearings, says the FLRA’s website. The FCC didn’t comment.

On Friday, FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry sent a memo to employees announcing more flexible work hours to allow them to better provide care for children or ill members of their households. “We know many of you have additional important family and other personal responsibilities requiring your time and energy,” Berry wrote.

The memo says FCC employees can use up to 10 hours weekly of paid excused absence to care for kids who can’t go to childcare or attend school during the pandemic, or to care for other family members -- such as elderly parents with special needs -- who require care or supervision not available now. The agency modified core hours and hours-of-work policies “to provide more flexibility as to when employees can perform their work,” the memo said. “If you need additional flexibility in your work schedule, please work with your supervisor ... to find a solution.” The policies took effect Monday.

The federal government “has been reactive at every stage,” said Robert DePriest, a labor lawyer with Kalijarvi Chuzi, which is handling an American Federal of Government Employees lawsuit brought in March against the Bureau of Prisons and departments of Agriculture and Veteran Affairs alleging front-line employees such as VA nurses and prison corrections officers should receive hazard pay. DePriest said even though most federal workers can telework, agencies “were lagging several weeks behind everyone else” in allowing it. DOJ didn’t allow telework on a large scale until March 23, he said. With OMB issuing telework guidance March 12, DOJ said it began implementing telework the next day, and expanded it in stages since. The FCC sent out a public notice limiting employee travel March 4, and issued an internal memo restricting access to the building and encouraging telework March 12 (see 2003120063). Chairman Ajit Pai also repeatedly tweeted endorsements of social distancing practices.

NTEU and FCC employees told us they are generally pleased with the regulator’s COVID-19 response. The agency was quick to encourage social distancing and restrict building access and employee travel. Reardon said the FCC’s successful transition to large-scale telework was “a credit to the agency.”

The Office of Personnel Management told executive agencies and departments March 3 to incorporate telework into their continuity of operations plans. Telework and social distancing will let the federal government “continue functioning efficiently and effectively, while ensuring the health and safety of employees,” it said days later.

The SEC said most staff began teleworking March 10, and before it took such preparatory steps such as network capacity tests and encouraging employees to test their remote connectivity. It said it put together a cross-divisional working group in February to prepare for COVID-19, starting with its possible effect on publicly traded companies and potential reporting challenges. Beginning in March, the securities regulator issued more than a dozen staff guidance items about compliance and orders providing regulatory relief.

By March 18, the Department of Energy was telling workers that anyone telework-ready should do so -- with supervisor approval -- unless in mission-critical circumstances. The same day, it notified staffers that a DOE employee at the agency’s Washington headquarters tested positive for the disease and it was doing “a deep clean” of that person’s office and surrounding work areas.

The U.S. Postal Service emailed us its expanded telework option took effect March 18 and its Washington headquarters remains open, with eligible employees having the option of teleworking. It said its COVID-19 command response leadership team is following strategies and measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health departments. USPS said it began messaging employees in January about avoiding illnesses including the flu by such steps as frequent hand washing. Based on CDC guidance, it expanded messaging and procedures in March to other workplace behavior measures, including social distancing at retail facilities and mail processing facilities.

DePriest said his firm is getting frequent reports in about mishandling by other agencies, and further litigation is possible. Better top-down planning from OPM might have made a difference, DePriest said, as might have better planning at the agency level: “This was not really an unforeseeable-type crisis.”

NTEU “commends agency leaders for providing additional scheduling flexibilities,” Reardon said of the FCC. The commission's expanded telework program during the pandemic is “proof” the agency should retain a flexible telework policy when it subsides, NTEU said. The current policy is an “outgrowth” of one pushed by NTEU, and telework policy is one of the matters at issue in the current contract negotiations, Reardon said.

The union is concerned about what will happen when employees return to their regular offices, Reardon said. A contractor who worked at the agency’s headquarters is believed, but not confirmed, to have died from COVID-19 in March. “NTEU National and Chapter 209 will closely monitor the cleaning and disinfecting of agency workspaces, the safety protocols for field agents, and insist that employees not return until the threat to their health has fully subsided.”

An FCC spokesperson told us the agency is unaware of any confirmed COVID-19 cases among employees and contractors. At the time that Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel mentioned the death, the agency declined to provide any details. To get more information on how the FCC is responding to the pandemic, we previously filed a Freedom of Information Act request with that agency. The FOIA request remains pending.

Editor's note: This is one in an occasional and continuing series of articles about how the FCC and its stakeholders are adjusting during the pandemic. Another report in this publication's current issue is about how ISPs are trying to keep their field technicians and customers safe: 2004100038. Other stories have been on the FCC closing its facilities: 2003120063. Another was about the communications bar association temporarily ending in-person events: 2003090062.