Spence to Hochul: With masks mandated, why not more telecommuting?

PEF President Wayne Spence sent a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Dec. 14 asking that she expand telecommuting for state workers, given the Omicron variant and the statewide rise in COVID-19 cases which necessitated the indoor mask mandate she just put into effect. You can read the full letter here. We will keep members posted on any reply from the governor’s office. In the meantime, PEF members should talk to their local labor-management committees for the latest on their agency’s telecommuting plan. As a reminder, our current PS&T contract requires all agencies to develop telecommuting policies with PEF and implement those policies within nine months of ratification, which occurred on July 27, 2021, so the deadline for those policies is late April 2022.