President-elect Trump on Monday pushed back against President Biden’s agreement allowing thousands of federal workers to stay in hybrid work arrangements through 2029.
“We’re talking about a friendly takeover, a friendly transition,” Trump said at a press conference. “But there are two events that took place that I think are very terrible.”
Trump didn’t hold back. “One is that if people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” he said. “Somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver of that.”
“It involved 49,000 people for five years. They don’t have to go,” Trump added. “They just signed this thing. It’s ridiculous. So it was like a gift to a union, and we’re going to obviously be in court to stop it.”
The deal Trump referred to was reached earlier this month. It’s between the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). It guarantees current telework levels until October 25, 2029.
Bloomberg first reported the deal, which covers about 42,000 Social Security employees. Some workers will need to be in the office two to five days a week, according to sources.
AFGE National President Everett Kelley defended the deal. He said telework “delivers for both the taxpayers and the workers who serve them.”
“Rumors of widespread federal telework and remote work are simply untrue,” Kelley added. “More than half of federal employees cannot telework at all. Only 10% are remote, and hybrid workers spend over 60% of working hours in the office.”
“Collective bargaining agreements are binding and enforceable under the law,” Kelley stated. “We trust the incoming administration will honor lawful union contracts. If they fail, we’ll enforce our rights.”
Trump has already tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their mission? Cut spending and streamline federal operations.
Musk and Ramaswamy are clear on remote work: it’s got to go. They see requiring employees back in the office as a tool for voluntary layoffs.
“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, agrees. She leads the Senate’s DOGE caucus and called the SSA deal “unacceptable.” Ernst promised to work with Musk, Ramaswamy, and DOGE to “fix this ASAP and get bureaucrats back to work.”