Social Security offices are open with reduced services during the shutdown, which is now in its 21st day. jetcityimage/Getty Images
By Erich Wagner
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Though OPM guidance states that agencies should seek to accommodate the needs of excepted workers during lapses in appropriation, employees who have fallen ill or simply can no longer afford to commute without getting paid have been labeled AWOL and threatened with discipline.
The Social Security Administration is denying its employees working amid the ongoing government shutdown access to days off and other workplace flexibilities, even as some struggle to afford their commute to work, union officials say.
Guidance from the Office of Personnel Management governing federal employees’ pay and benefits during appropriations lapses, last updated Sept. 28, stipulates that while scheduled leave is cancelled at the start of a government shutdown, agencies should grant excepted employees, who are forced to work without pay until funding is restored, access to episodic telework or be temporarily placed in a furlough status if they need time off.
“An excepted employee may be excused from duty for intermittent periods during a shutdown furlough,” OPM wrote. “While excused from performing excepted duties, the employee will be placed in furlough status unless the employee elects to use paid leave . . . However, if an excepted employee needs to be absent from work for brief periods, agencies are encouraged to explore the use of workplace flexibilities such as alternative work schedules and telework to accommodate the employee’s need to be absent. If use of workplace flexibilities is not appropriate for the situation, excepted employees must be furloughed for any brief absence or allowed to request paid leave.”
But Jessica LaPointe, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents employees at SSA’s field offices and teleservice centers, said the agency appears to be categorically denying requests for telework or time off, instead placing workers in absent without leave status. Employees placed in AWOL status will be denied backpay for the time they miss and carries the potential for discipline or termination.
“This is notice that you have been placed on Absence without Leave (AWOL) for 8 hours . . . when you failed to report for duty,” stated a memorandum that one employee received, obtained by Government Executive. “You have been placed on AWOL because you were not on duty as scheduled and you were not on approved leave to cover the period of your absence. Although AWOL itself is not a disciplinary action, it may be used as the basis for disciplinary action . . . As I have reminded you, it is important that you come to work when scheduled, remain on the job, and perform the essential functions of your job.”
In a statement, an SSA spokesperson contested AFGE’s allegations as “inaccurate.”
“SSA is following long-standing guidelines for how requests for episodic telework, annual leave and sick leave are handled,” they wrote. “There is also a process for employees to follow if they request to be placed on furlough status, which is unchanged. SSA offices remain open and continue to serve the public.”
But that doesn’t track with what is happening across the agency, LaPointe said. The union has seen an increase in denial rates for episodic telework since the shutdown began, and she said management has added new requirements to requests from employees to be placed in a leave or furlough status.
“We are seeing the agency deny requests for leave that run afoul of our [union] contract and negotiated agreements as a direct result of this shutdown posture,” she said. “For example, in teleservice centers, if an employee requests leave or a furlough in lieu of leave unless they provide medical documentation, which is a change of practice and not what our contract states.”
Even requests for a single sick day have been met with the demand for a doctor’s note, LaPointe said. The end result is that agency employees, particularly those who work in teleservice centers and field offices, who make between $32,000 and $52,000 per year, are feeling increasingly squeezed financially. She has already heard from a rash of employees submitting resignation paperwork due to the stress and the agency’s apparent intransigence.
“You have single parents who have to go to food pantries, who can’t afford day care, who can’t afford the gas to put in the car to make it to work, and then they can’t afford the parking that it takes to get into work, or they have to choose between those things or paying for their rent, mortgage or bills,” she said. “At our town hall last week, a worker said they had just $30 left in their bank account. And if you happen to have the luxury of family or friends who could loan you money or you found a lender who would support you during this time, it still takes time to sort all that out, right? So these workers are simultaneously deprived their pay and denied time away from work to sort things out.”