State employees return to office despite extended remote work agreement

[TexasTowelie]

ALBANY — Although a temporary remote-work agreement was recently extended to April, New York's force unions say the majority of their members have returned to offices.

Both the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation, unions representing over 100,000 state employees across New York, said most of their members have returned to offices — or never left if they were considered essential workers — but labor leaders continue to question bringing employees to offices if they have successfully worked from home.

PEF spokesman Rob Merrill said from the beginning of the pandemic the labor union has thought it was “foolish” to bring any state employee back to a work setting who has successfully worked from home during the height of the health crisis.

“Why the governor doesn't ‘follow the science’ on this issue is baffling,” he said. “All the data proves that anyone spending time around people outside of their household run the risk of spreading and contracting the disease.”

Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Capitol-Insider-State-employees-return-to-office-15909016.php
(Albany Times Union)