Another Situational Telework Update

GESTA has informed management we are taking them to arbitration to challenge their denial of GESTA’s grievance on situational telework. GESTA’s grievance was based on the information that Segrid Harris, head of Code 500, had instructed supervisors not to allow situational telework for any cases involving non-recurring medical, family care, or other personal appointments. The guidance calls on supervisors to decide these on a case-by-case basis, but they were instead told to ignore that and simply deny all telework for these “lower hour use” cases, even when granting situational telework would have allowed an employee to more efficiently complete projects. Management denied all of GESTA‘s remedies in the grievance, based on their assertion that “A review of available HR data does not reflect any significant inconsistencies in situational telework usage between directorates.” We will provide membership with more updates when we can on this ongoing arbitration.