Fight Over DOL Return to Office Raises Stakes for All Agencies

The US Labor Department is pressing arguments that its field staff union doesn’t have the right to bargain over return to office policy, potentially creating a path to bar other federal employees from negotiating attendance requirements at their agencies.

After months of bargaining over the number of days DOL field employees have to report in-person, the agency in August took the stance that in-office attendance was not a mandatory subject of bargaining, tossing the case out of the authority of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. That small federal agency addresses conflicts between federal agencies and their staff unions when they’re ...