Prior to today, EPA limited who could telework to those employees that had been with EPA for not less than 90 days to six months, at the supervisor's discretion. In other words, you had to work for EPA for at least 90 days before you could even request telework.
Yesterday, Chapter 280 signed an agreement with EPA that allows new employees to begin teleworking immediately, with supervisor approval, if they've been impacted by Metro's SafeTrack repairs. NTEU Chapter 280 has been negotiating this and other SafeTrack-related flexibilities with the agency in an effort to minimize the impacts of the track work on our members. It's been difficult, and the agency has not been very cooperative, but on this issue they finally agreed.
The memorandum of understanding waives the 90-day - six month waiting period during the SafeTrack Rehabilitation for "employees ... whose commutes are affected by SafeTrack." Keep in mind that the decision to allow telework remains "at the discretion of [your] supervisor" under the agreement. With that said, supervisors may not arbitrarily deny requests for telework. Any denial must be based upon criteria spelled out in Article 54 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
You can download a copy of the new SafeTrack-related agreement here.
If you feel you've been wrongfully denied telework, please contact us immediately. Certain deadlines may apply and could limit our intervention to the first 30 days after the denial.