Unions object to NYPD’s request for teleworking compliance checks

In negotiations this fall with District Council 37 over teleworking policies, the NYPD requested the right to conduct compliance checks on NYPD employees working remotely to ensure that they are working and living where they claim. 

The department included the request in its first discussion with DC 37 over remote work plans last month according to Anthony Wells, president of DC 37’s Local 371, and Laura Pirtle Morand, president of Local 2627, both of whom represent members in the NYPD who would be affected by the department's work-from-home policy. 

Morand told The Chief that DC 37 rejected the NYPD’s proposal when they first put it forward last month, but the department brought the suggestion back up with no changes at a second discussion session last week. “What the NYPD is trying to do is egregious,” Morand said last week. “A police officer could show up at one of my members’ homes unannounced. They should not have the right to do that.” 

Wells agreed that the suggested policy was unacceptable. “We would not be in favor of that,” he said during a phone interview. 

The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment. 

Earlier this year, in their contract agreements with the city, DC 37 created a remote work pilot for every mayoral agency. That agreement gave agencies the power to approve from where employees are teleworking to ensure that city employees have not moved out of the city or the tri-state area, but the agreement included nothing about compliance checks, Morand said.  

“The NYPD is supposed to comply with what we already agreed to with OLR,” she added. 

Since the citywide agreement was finalized, each mayoral agency has negotiated directly with the union to determine the specifics of work-from-home plans. The NYPD was the last agency to approach DC37, Morand said, giving her the impression that the department is dragging its feet to delay implementation of work from home. 

City Hall also did not respond to a request for comment. Each mayoral agency had to submit their individual telework plans to the mayor before discussions with DC37 began. 

Daniel Pollak, first deputy commissioner at the Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations, said last month that 20,000 workers across 34 agencies who are represented by DC 37 have started working from home on a part-time basis. An additional 16,500 non-unionized city employees now also qualify for work from home, City Hall announced two weeks ago.

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com