Arbitrator orders restoration of telework at Social Security

The Social Security Administration must restore many of its employees’ ability to work remotely, according to an independent arbitrator who ruled Wednesday that the agency violated and illegally repudiated its contract with the American Federation of Government Employees when it called most workers back to the office full-time last March.

In January 2025, shortly after President Trump’s return to office, he issued a presidential memorandum purporting to end telework for most federal workers. SSA officials initially stated that it intended to “fully comply” with that memo and said employees would “soon be working in the office five days a week (full-time) with very few exceptions.”

But the agency waited until March to implement the memo, and when it did so it couched its actions as a temporary “suspension” of telework, in an apparent nod to AFGE’s collective bargaining agreement, which was revised in November 2024 to lock in employees’ access to the workplace flexibility until at least 2029, albeit with exceptions for temporary “operational needs.”

Last March, then-acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek told the union that in-person work was needed for three months to aid with a new requirement for Social Security beneficiaries go to a field office to “proof” their identities. The widespread suspension of telework is still in place—with exceptions primarily for Office of Hearing Operations employees and workers with reasonable accommodations due to a disability—and the agency has not stated when or under what conditions it would be lifted.

Arbitrator Sarah Espinosa wrote Wednesday that the agency “clearly” has both violated and unlawfully repudiated the telework provision of AFGE and SSA’s union contract, noting that the agency’s explanation for suspending telework has shifted widely over the last 15 months.

“The agency presented no testimony or persuasive documentary evidence to establish that the cessation of telework was intended to last for a finite period of time or what that time period would be, measured either in days or months or as determined by circumstances or conditions specified by the agency,” she wrote. “[The] agency could easily have rebutted the evidence presented by the union and demonstrated that the cessation of telework was actually a suspension, that is, temporary in nature, if, in fact, that was the case. Despite ample opportunities to do so between the time of the suspension and through the hearing [in January], however, the agency did not. The approach of ‘take our word for it,’ is insufficient in light of the evidence presented.”

The restoration of telework will not be immediate, however. An SSA spokesperson who declined to be named said the agency “strongly disagrees” with the arbitrator’s decision and said it will file an appeal with the Federal Labor Relations Authority. They touted service improvements that took place since the suspension began, though experts and customers have disputed those metrics’ accuracy.

“The federal government has a return to in-person work mandate,” the spokesperson said. “SSA has realized significant improvements in our performance, providing better, faster customer service for the American people through hands-on work and hands-on management. Sixty-five percent more calls were answered in FY 2025 compared to FY 2024, with average wait times in the single digits.”

SSA has previously touted the success of AI chatbots, not customer service representatives, in its improved time-to-answer stats, though Social Security beneficiaries have largely panned their performance.

Rich Couture, chairman of AFGE’s Social Security Administration General Committee, applauded Wednesday’s decision and urged the agency to restore telework for its workforce.

“AFGE bargaining unit employees have proven for three decades, and especially since our March 2022 re-entry after COVID, that telework is to the benefit of the public by boosting productivity, recruitment and retention and morale,” he said. “Telework was, and remains, essential to preventing attrition at a time when SSA needs every employee it can hold onto, a point on which even the Government Accountability Office agrees as stated in a recent report. Put another way, telework is in the public interest, the agency’s interest and the employees’ interests.”