Safe Return: what CFPB workers need to protect our health and safety during the pandemic

TL;DR: 

1. Employees must not be forced to return to the office or official travel until it is safe. Working from home must remain the default practice before herd immunity is achieved.
2. In light of this pandemic, Director Kraninger must reverse her anti-worker contract proposals on official time and grievance rights. These are essential protections we rely on in order to advocate for our safety.

3. For a safe return, CFPB must provide working conditions that protect the health and safety of all employees and prevent exposure to COVID-19, which is required by our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Contractors must also be provided safe working conditions.

We haven’t forgotten that in the DC Headquarters office alone, CFPB reported 8 known cases of COVID-19 between March 16 and March 27 (when they announced they would stop reporting the number of known cases). NTEU 335 has also recognized, since day one of this pandemic, the need for our contractor colleagues, many of whom are designated essential workers, to receive PPE, paid leave, and telework when possible in order to stay safe and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. None of us is protected unless all of us are protected!

Our current recommendations:

1. Employees must not be forced to return to the office or official travel until it is safe. Working from home must remain the default practice before herd immunity is achieved.

   1. We must not be required to return to official travel or to working in offices until a vaccine is readily available to all employees.
   2. Workers must be able to continue to telework and work from home full-time, without administrative burdens proving our need to do so. Home and telework should be the default work location until there is a vaccine. CFPB's Pandemic Plan recommends this, too.
   3. Expand remote work opportunities and grant employee-initiated relocation requests when the employee’s work may be done full-time from the home duty station.
   4. CFPB should continue providing workplace flexibilities, including 20 hours a pay period of COVID-19 admin leave, after mandatory telework ends.
   5. Include union representation on the Technical Evaluation Panel (TEP) as a voting member on any proposals submitted to CFPB regarding pandemic response and employee health and safety.
   6. End mandatory telework no sooner than emergency dates communicated to Bureau-regulated entities. For example, Director Kraninger has announced that due to the emergency, banks do not have to comply with EFTA remittance rules before January 1, 2021.
   7. CFPB continues to approve telework or weather and safety leave for those who are at high-risk, and sick leave, without requiring notes from a medical provider.

2. Director Kraninger must reverse her anti-worker contract proposals and restore our official time and grievance rights. These are essential to protecting us from COVID-19.

1. 1. Kraninger’s midterm bargaining grievance proposal will weaken protections for whistleblowers who speak up about unsafe working conditions during this pandemic. Under Kraninger’s proposal, workers would lose the right to fight back against retaliatory firings and discrimination.
   2. Kraninger’s official time proposal strikes directly at union representatives by removing our right to represent employees during working hours. Under a Kraninger anti-worker regime, workers won't meet with union officials except on nights and weekends, and union members won't meet with management during work hours. If this proposal had gone into effect during the pandemic, we wouldn’t have been able to meet with management to push them to order everyone to work from home, and more CFPB workers would have been exposed to COVID-19 on the job.

3. For a safe return, CFPB must provide working conditions that protect the health and safety of all employees and prevent exposure to COVID-19, which is required by our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Contractors must also be provided safe working conditions.

1. 1. 1. Minimum conditions for reopening are in place according to CDC and White House Task Force guidelines, including 14 days of decreasing cases by all relevant metrics.
      2. State and local stay-at-home orders have been lifted.
      3. Universal testing is provided for CFPB employees and contractors, and a negative test result is required before being cleared to enter an office or travel.
         1. Tests must be administered regularly.
         2. CFPB must develop and implement policies and procedures for contact tracing following an employee testing positive for COVID-19. Contact tracing was not done adequately in March and April and a review must be conducted, with input from the bargaining unit, to identify and solve the problems and resulting failures that occurred.
      4. Workspaces are set up to accommodate safe physical distancing and according to OSHA guidelines (PDF).
         1. Windows and doors are open in workspaces to provide ventilation and disperse aerosolized virus droplets.
         2. Use videoconferencing software to hold meetings. When videoconferencing or teleconferencing is not possible, hold meetings in open, well-ventilated spaces, and space chairs at least 6 feet apart. This means the 1700 G Street basement is not a suitable location for use during the pandemic.
         3. Banks and other covered entities must provide physical distancing plans to CFPB for hosting onsite examiners.
         4. Entities who cannot provide space for physical distancing during onsite exams will continue to have exams conducted remotely.
      5. All workspaces and common areas remain thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and custodians are provided PPE including gowns, masks and gloves according to CDC guidelines.
      6. Workers are required and provided the use of N95 face masks.
      7. Work areas include fully stocked supplies of hand-sanitizer, wipes, and gloves.
      8. Contractors working onsite at CFPB are provided an assigned seat at least 6 feet from others in a well-ventilated space, access to the same sanitation supplies (including masks, gloves, and hand-sanitizer) as CFPB employees, and timely communication regarding COVID-19 related information.
      9. CFPB should require contracting firms to provide paid leave to staff who are not able to work due to office closures, potential exposure, illness, or caring for others due to the pandemic.
      10. NTEU 335 supports MAXIMUS call center workers’ demands for safe working conditions. CFPB must immediately investigate reports of unsafe workplaces and require that MAXIMUS provides its staff with these protections:
          1. 1. Telework so workers can physically distance. CFPB has assured NTEU that MAXIMUS call centers are working from home, but in light of recent reports, we need confirmation.
             2. Emergency paid leave and continued health insurance coverage for workers who can't work from home.
             3. Paid leave for all who need it without requiring a doctor’s note or proof of school closures.
             4. MAXIMUS management must meet with the worker Organizing Committee immediately to address the COVID-19 crisis.
      11. A process is in place for taking temperatures of employees and visitors before they enter the building (recognizing that CDC now acknowledges asymptomatic transmission).
      12. Flexible schedules are set up to accommodate safe physical distancing in offices. Employee ideas for this include:
          1. Provide additional telework days in telework agreements for up to 9 days of telework per pay period. Employees will come into the office on a staggered schedule for the 10th day to provide for physical distancing.
          2. Allow for half day shifts in morning and evening.
          3. Cohort groups of employees who are coming in on the same shifts to reduce the number of people we come into contact with.