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The Office of Personnel Management can urge and encourage agencies to expand flexibilities, enter into ad-hoc agreements and use unscheduled telework during the coronavirus pandemic, but it doesn't have the authority to do much else.
The Office of Personnel Management also announced an operating status change for the national capital region. Federal offices are open but with maximum telework flexibilities for eligible employees.
The restrictions, which take effect Monday, will prohibit most domestic travel with few exceptions.
Federal employee are expressing anger and fear over a lack of planning around telework by their agencies to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
The notion that agencies could fire federal employees for “disloyalty” or personal political beliefs has long been dispensed with, and was codified in the Civil Service Reform Act, now over 40 years old.
The Social Security Administration will revert to pre-March telework schedules for some employees. It will set up a "work at home quarantine" option for SSA employees who must quarantine or those whose children are home due to a coronavirus-related school closure.
As the Trump administration urges agencies to expand telework to employees at “higher risk” of exposure to coronavirus, the Education Department has taken steps to relax limits on how often employees can work from home.
After a sharp rise in the federal retirement processing backlog in January, the numbers dropped last month — but still about equal to 2019 levels.
The latest guidance from the Trump administration comes as the Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives and Records Administration close museums, research rooms and presidential libraries due to coronavirus concerns. NARA public events are also canceled through May 3.
The two largest federal employee unions said Thursday steps to protect the federal workforce from the rapid spread of the coronavirus were falling short.
Coast Guardsmen are told not to travel to areas in the United States with sustained infections.
In today's Federal Newscast, members of Congress are laying out their concerns about coronavirus epidemic's potential impact on many federal programs.
DoD organizations are being told to put all non-mission-essential travel on hold for at least the next two months. Travel bans to and through some countries will take effect on Friday.
Whoever said timing is everything sure knew what she was talking about. Take teleworking, please!