{"id":107967,"date":"2021-02-25T11:57:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T11:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=107967"},"modified":"2021-02-25T11:57:04","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T11:57:04","slug":"social-security-boss-canceled-telework-for-others-but-wouldnt-come-to-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/social-security-boss-canceled-telework-for-others-but-wouldnt-come-to-the-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security Boss Canceled Telework For Others But Wouldn’t Come To The Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul upset many agency staff when he canceled a popular teleworking program in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA time of workload crisis is not the time to experiment with working at home,\u201d Saul said when he <\/span>announced the policy<\/span>, citing a need to reduce wait times for Social Security claimants.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Saul himself did not work in the agency\u2019s main Baltimore office even before the pandemic forced everyone into telework, says Ralph de Juliis, president of the AFGE Council 220, which represents Social Security employees in field offices and call centers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told he\u2019s spending his time in New York because that\u2019s where he\u2019s from,\u201d de Juliis told HuffPost.<\/span><\/p>\n

De Juliis said agency workers could see that Saul wasn\u2019t logging into his Skype account, either, which employees and managers use for internal communication at the agency. In January 2020, his Skype account had been inactive for 67 days, according to a screenshot de Juliis shared with HuffPost.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic soon brought a reversal of Saul\u2019s telework clampdown. But now that coronavirus infections are subsiding, de Juliis worries Saul will go back to demanding in-person work.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the major reasons unions and liberal advocacy groups want President Joe Biden to clean house at the SSA and fire both Saul and Deputy Commissioner David Black, the other remaining Donald Trump appointee.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Senate confirmed Saul to a six-year term in 2019, putting the septuagenarian former businessman and Republican donor in charge of the agency tasked with sending monthly checks to tens of millions of retired and disabled Americans. Saul previously chaired the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which oversees a retirement savings plan for federal employees, and he served as a trustee for the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.<\/span><\/p>\n

His current term wouldn\u2019t expire until 2025. While this position would normally carry over between administrations, the Supreme Court recently suggested agency heads shouldn\u2019t be shielded from presidential firings. And Biden <\/span>didn\u2019t hesitate to fire<\/span> the Republican-appointed general counsel to the National Labor Relations Board before his term ended.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe really think Biden should find new people to run the Social Security Administration, who haven\u2019t made it a point to be bad and horrible to employees and the union,\u201d de Juliis said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The SSA\u2019s press office ignored requests for comment for this story.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Personnel And Policy\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Under Saul\u2019s leadership, the agency has tightened eligibility rules for disability benefits and sought to diminish the role of administrative law judges when people appeal benefit denials. Most disability claims are denied initially, and administrative law judges give claimants a chance to plead their case in front of someone with a measure of independence from the agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in its closing days, the Trump administration <\/span>finalized a rule<\/span> giving Social Security more leeway to use its own lawyers in some appeals hearings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Members of the AFGE Council 220 and the Association of Administrative Law Judges held no-confidence votes against Saul last month, citing telework and the new disability appeals process. The AALJ also complained that the administration tried to implement a <\/span>partially negotiated contract<\/span>, essentially circumventing the collective bargaining process.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey tried to eliminate our union and they\u2019re trying to take our jobs through this appeals council rule that was hustled through\u201d in December, Judge Melissa McIntosh, president of the AALJ, told HuffPost.<\/span><\/p>\n

The progressive advocacy group Social Security Works and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who chairs a Social Security subcommittee, have also joined the unions\u2019 calls for Saul to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs agents of the Trump Social Security agenda, they cut the benefits that hardworking Americans have earned, attacked the Social Security Administration\u2019s employees, denied beneficiaries due process, and needlessly increased disability reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d Brown said last week. \u201cNo one has been safe from their path of destruction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The SSA\u2019s leadership is set up as an independent commission, with appointees serving six-year terms that don\u2019t coincide with changes in presidential administration. This setup was designed to shield leadership from partisan politics. But the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for the president to be unable to fire an agency head without cause when it weighed in on whether Donald Trump could fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.\u00a0The court noted, however, that the SSA is a very different agency, mainly sending people money and not suing them to enforce the law as CFPB does.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Biden administration put Saul <\/span>on a list of \u201cacting\u201d agency heads<\/span> in January, implying that his days are numbered. The White House declined to comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Labor relations are a major issue for the SSA, which has less staff than it did in previous decades even as millions more people are collecting retirement benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saul\u2019s main justification for canceling telework before the pandemic was excessive wait times for people calling Social Security offices. An inspector general report from 2017 found\u00a0<\/span>mixed results<\/span> from the telework project.<\/span><\/p>\n

De Juliis said that in the five weeks after the agency reverted to telework during the pandemic compared to the five weeks prior, 54% fewer callers got a busy signal and 52% fewer calls were abandoned by the caller hanging up in frustration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though de Juliis said telework hasn\u2019t diminished the quality of service available from Social Security offices, there\u2019s no question that fewer disability applicants are getting served. Last year saw a sharp decrease in applications due to the closure of Social Security field offices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Social Security manager who is not a member of the union told HuffPost that telework was an important perk. Some job applicants who live far from the office wouldn\u2019t have accepted positions if teleworking hadn\u2019t been available.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are still mad about it,\u201d said the manager, speaking anonymously for fear of losing their job. \u201cEvery day they\u2019re saying, \u2018What\u2019s going to happen when the COVID emergency goes away?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, the union printed out flyers with Saul\u2019s face on them and posted them around the office. \u201cWHERE IS SAUL? HE\u2019S STILL MISSING,\u201d the flyers said. \u201cWE THOUGHT YOU CANCELED TELEWORK SO PEOPLE COULD BE AT WORK?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul upset many agency staff when he canceled a popular teleworking program in 2019. \u201cA time of workload crisis is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSocial Security Boss Canceled Telework For Others But Wouldn't Come To The Office - Fin2me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/social-security-boss-canceled-telework-for-others-but-wouldnt-come-to-the-office\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social Security Boss Canceled Telework For Others But Wouldn't Come To The Office - Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul upset many agency staff when he canceled a popular teleworking program in 2019. \u201cA time of workload crisis is [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/social-security-boss-canceled-telework-for-others-but-wouldnt-come-to-the-office\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-25T11:57:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/EjwKwSWciRLusWfuPtkX.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"563\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"563\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/social-security-boss-canceled-telework-for-others-but-wouldnt-come-to-the-office\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/social-security-boss-canceled-telework-for-others-but-wouldnt-come-to-the-office\/\",\"name\":\"Social Security Boss Canceled Telework For Others But Wouldn't Come To The Office - 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