OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Sen. Joni Ernst released a report claimingfederal workers are abusing telework opportunities, but a union that represents federal workers is disputing some of the numbers in that report.
- There are more than 18,000 federal civilian employees in Iowa and Nebraska, including in Omaha and Council Bluffs, and more than two million nationwide.
- According to the report, "Out of Office," from Ernst's office: "Most federal employees are eligible to telework and 90% of those are. Some come to the office as infrequently as once a week."
- Everett Kelley the president of AFGE — a federal workers union — says the actual numbers may be lower: "Only about 20% of the federal workforce has ever even worked remotely."
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
I'm Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel.
One of our local senators, Iowa's Joni Ernst, is being talked about for a possible cabinet position.
As that discussion has been happening, Ernst announced her leadership of the DOGE caucus; a collaboration with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami, and released a report claiming federal workers are abusing telework opportunities.
I decided to look into it a little further.
There are more than 18,000 federal civilian employees in Iowa and Nebraska, including in Omaha and Council Bluffs, and more than two million nationwide.
Ernst says her report shows some of those federal workers are abusing telework options. She outlined potential problems during a speech last year.
"They did not appear to be working, according to an internal review of employee logins to the agency's email and file systems,” said Ernst on the Senate floor.
I reached out to Ernst's office to ask for an interview. An aide responded with links to recent news releases. In one, the senator says of her report: "Most federal employees are eligible to telework and 90% of those are. Some come to the office as infrequently as once a week."
The White House Office of Management and Budgetissued a report in August with different results: 54% work fully in-person federal jobs, such as park rangers or VA medical staff. Less than half — 46% — are eligible for telework.
Everett Kelley the president of AFGE — a federal workers union — says the actual numbers may be lower.
"Only about 20% of the federal workforce has ever even worked remotely,” said Kelley on C-SPAN.
Ernst is skeptical of the union's support for teleworking: "...and government employee unions are fighting efforts to bring government bureaucrats back..."
Ernst claimed: "Six percent of workers report in-person on a full-time basis, while nearly one-third are entirely remote."
But AFGE refutes that. The union emailed me a news release saying only 10% of federal civilian employees are fully remote.
Ernst has raised other spending concerns such as unused federal office space post-COVID: "75% or more of the office space at the headquarters of most of our federal agencies is not being used."
The Government Accountability Office released a reportin November citing telework as a recruitment tool for some departments, such as customer service at the IRS, but also noted areas needing improvement. For instance, evaluating the performance of remote workers.
