The correspondence from the officers of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3810 to Assistant Secretary Alejandra Y. Castillo, which was obtained by FedScoop, alleges that agency leaders haven’t taken union input seriously. It seeks several actions to remedy the situation, including a memorandum of understanding on the agency’s “return-to-work” policy and mediation services to “reestablish a healthy relationship.”

If those goals aren’t met in a “reasonable timeframe,” the union “will not hesitate to file an unfair labor charge against EDA with the National Labor Relations Board,” citing support from AFGE and the AFL-CIO, with which it’s affiliated.

“We have continuously expressed that the Agency’s ‘return-to-office’ policy will result in increased turnover and seriously jeopardize the Agency’s ability to function, yet conversations on how to best address our concerns have completely stalled,” according to the letter dated May 28. 

The union further stated the agency is losing workers to other organizations that provide telework and cited a recent member survey that it said paints “a picture of an agency on the brink of collapse.” That survey, the letter said, found more than half of respondents were applying for positions outside the agency and nearly two-thirds would accept a job outside EDA.

“I don’t think this is a problem that’s specific to EDA. I think this is a governmentwide problem,” Ryan Zamarripa, the vice president of Local 3810, said of agency telework policies in an interview with FedScoop. “I think that we’re going to see a pretty decreased ability in the executive branch to carry out its duties if we continue to go against the grain on what we know is an effective way to work.”

Zamarripa, who noted he was speaking in his capacity as an officer for the local and not for the agency, said the union has received a response from Castillo that the letter was received and she plans to respond in full.

In a statement emailed to FedScoop addressing the letter, Castillo and Ben Page, EDA’s chief operating officer and deputy assistant secretary for economic development, said leadership “has strived to engage and maintain a healthy working relationship with the union and the employees it represents.”

“Throughout this period of exponential programmatic growth, EDA’s leadership team, our union, and our stakeholders have engaged in frequent, real-time dialogue about where we are, and where we are headed, including in the thoughtful planning for our required increased office attendance,” Castillo and Page wrote. “These conversations have happened both privately, as well as through frequent leadership team calls and open town halls.”

As with the private sector, pandemic-era telework policies in federal agencies and plans to bring workers back into physical offices have been the subject of occasionally contentious debate. The Biden administration has recently expanded overseas telework efforts and officials have noted benefits of preserving at least some remote work options in hearings on Capitol Hill. 

Those policies have come under fire from congressional Republicans who have questioned agency oversight of remote workers and their levels of productivity. But there have been some bipartisan efforts on telework policy, including bills aimed at establishing transparency and management practices for remote positions and promoting better data collection to provide insights about telework performance. 

The EDA focuses on supporting economic development in regions across the country by providing funding and resources to communities. According to Zamarripa, the union represents roughly 70 EDA workers in roles throughout the United States. Over the past few years, those workers have rolled out billions of dollars in federal initiatives such as the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act.

During the height of the pandemic, the EDA, like other agencies, was fully remote, Zamarripa said. Currently, the agency requires workers to come in two days per pay period, which is roughly once a week for most people, he said. While workers have been told there will be an increase in required in-office presence, Zamarripa said “we haven’t really received clear guidance on what the future holds.”

The union’s letter said that the EDA “is rapidly approaching a staffing level inconsistent with its current workload” and alleged mismanagement of funds and retention issues were the cause.

“This is not only due to the gross mismanagement of federal monies at the Agency leadership level that resulted in mass layoffs but also due to the Agency leadership’s inability to retain staff,” the union officers said.

Zamarripa said the layoffs mentioned in the letter were announced in September. Citing funding issues, the agency gave some workers three-month notices, told others they would be getting notices in the future, or informed workers that their contract wouldn’t be extended, he said.

Castillo and Page pushed back on the accusation of mismanagement in their statement, contending that “EDA appropriately managed the resources that were provided, leveraging term employees to address an unprecedented surge in work without leaving an unsustainable fiscal burden.” 

In addition to the memorandum of understanding and the mediation services, the union also requested that Castillo attend Labor Management Council meetings until the “quality of dialogue” is to the satisfaction of the union officers. It cited a March executive order from the Biden administration that, among other things, directed agencies to “allow employees and their union representatives to have pre-decisional involvement in workplace matters, including … discussions with management for the development of joint solutions to workplace challenges.” 

“We just want a reset,” Zamarripa said, adding it isn’t clear the information they’re relaying in meetings is getting to the assistant secretary. He said the union wants Castillo to know “what’s actually happening in these meetings and how the labor side of these conversations is perceiving them.”

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In a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the union has brought five allegations against the company, including that it violated the National Labor Relations Act by making implied promises of benefits to employees to interfere with union activity, and discharging employees in retaliation for union organizing.

CWA alleges also in the complaint that the company forced employees to attend a meeting during which they were urged to reject union representation, threatened employees with layoffs in relation for union organizing and offered employees severance agreements that proscribed certain employee rights.

The union said it brought charges after Maximus earlier this month laid off more than 700 employees at the call centers, which represented the second round of staff reductions to take place this year. The workers impacted by the layoffs were customer service representatives who support Obamacare and Medicare calls and who answer questions for the CDC-INFO line, according to CWA.

Speaking with FedScoop at a protest organized by CWA outside the HHS building as the labor on Thursday, five Maximus employees said hundreds of employees are expected to be laid off this month based in part on unionization drives which the company opposes, unexpected and unfair schedule changes, as well as tech system failures. FedScoop spoke with Daija Arrington, Keaira Mark, Jadaisha Mark, Audrianna Lewis and Terry Beecham.

Arrington told FedScoop she believed layoffs at the company were based in part on unionization drives. The employee has worked handling calls for the CDC for three years, and told this publication that she had an excellent performance record.

Arrington said: “I was [told about being] laid off two days before Mothers Day, along with 700 of my co-workers, despite my great performance record with no discipline.” She added: “I believe the real reason I was laid off was in retaliation for speaking out about Maximus’ working conditions, and to scare my co-workers from supporting a union. But we have a right to speak out and tell the truth, and to organize to improve our working conditions. That’s why we’re calling on HHS to hold Maximus accountable for mistreating workers, help us keep our jobs, and make sure we’re paid the fair wages we deserve.”

In a statement, Maximus spokesperson Eileen Cassidy Rivera said that while the allegations had only just been made available to the company, it was confident it had complied with all applicable labor requirements.

She said: “Given the lack of specific detail, including dates of alleged occurrence and names of workers, we are unable to respond directly to the allegations. We pride ourselves in complying with applicable labor laws across all our operations and will cooperate fully with any request from the National Labor Relations Board.”

Maximus operates Department of Health and Human Services call centers under contracts with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control.

Speaking at the Maximus protest outside the HHS building, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-MS., said: “I was appalled to learn that Maximus has announced layoffs affecting more than 700 call center workers who work under contracts with HHS.”

He added: “This includes many workers who have been active union supporters and who have been brave enough to come forward and share their experiences about racial inequity at the company. Maximus workers deserve to be rewarded for their hard work, not treated like they’re disposable and they don’t matter. It is imperative that HHS ensures that Maximus provides good jobs with living wages, and workers don’t have to face unfair and unnecessary layoffs.”

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Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

In an email to FedScoop Wednesday morning, USPS spokeswoman Sue Brennan confirmed that the agency has halted its teleworking program in response to the breach. Brennan also said no timeline was currently in place as to when the program would be reinstated.

“We will notify employees about this when we have additional information,” Brennan said.

The virtual private network, or VPN, which allows most employees to telework, “was identified as vulnerable to this type of intrusion and will remain unavailable as we work to make modifications to this type of remote access to our networks,” according to a frequently asked questions document distributed to employees in the wake of the cyber intrusion.

The notice added, “When VPN is available again, users will notice changes in functionality. We will have additional information about VPN in the near future.”

The telework stoppage comes after the USPS announced Monday that its employees’ personally identifiable information, including their social security numbers, had been potentially compromised in a cyber intrusion to the agency’s network. The public announcement of the breach came almost two months after the USPS’ inspector general alerted the agency that its systems had been compromised.

USPS Chief Information Security Officer Chuck McGann declined to comment to FedScoop on the breach.

Union files charges against USPS leadership

Meanwhile, the American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 postal employees, is fuming over the agency’s response to the hack. The union announced it had filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board in protest of the Postal Service’s failure to involve unions while handling the breach.

“We have already filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board protesting the Postal Service’s failure to bargain over the impact of the security breach,” APWU President Mark Dimondstein said in a letter to union members. “We are demanding information from the USPS about the extent of the breach — both known and suspected — and what postal management knew, when they knew it and what they did, or failed to do, to protect employee information.”

According to the letter from Dimondstein, the postmaster general called him the evening before the incident was announced.

APWU President Mark Dimondstein (Credit: APWU)

“It was just a courtesy call, not a discussion with the APWU about how to deal with the problem and its negative consequences to the workforce,” Dimondstein said. “While the Postal Service has been aware of the security problems for months, they kept you and your union leadership in the dark.”

This is not the first time Dimondstein has thrown barbs at the USPS executive leadership team. In July, Dimondstein presided over a vote of the union to call for Donahoe’s resignation.

Despite the “courtesy call” from Donahoe, Dimondstein said that he, along with other APWU leaders, would be personally involved as the union addresses its concerns. The letter also said the union would include other postal unions in the discussion process as well.

“The APWU is fully committed to defending the privacy rights of all our members,” Dimondstein said. “Unfortunately, cybercrime is real and effective. But we are outraged that this happened. We do not know at this point whether management did everything in their power to protect our privacy, but they bear the ultimate responsibility.”

USPS spokeswoman Sue Brennan declined to comment “on any type of pending legal matters.”

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