Dear Colleagues,
On June 18, GOERS released guidance for all New York State “Agencies and Authorities.” The guidance related to the upcoming July 2 expiration of the current Telecommuting Pilot Program AND (more importantly) granted Agencies and Authorities the power to develop their own, individualized, telecommuting programs. The Agencies and Authorities have been given until July 31, 2021 to submit their own specific telecommuting programs to GOER for review/approval.
The new Agency and Authority-specific telecommuting programs are to address the following situations –
- Requests for reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the New York State Human Rights Laws.
- Temporary COVID19 specific accommodations for employee issues (child and elder care) that are outside the scope of ADA/HRLs … where reasonable and do not adversely impact agency or authority operations.
At the UUP Presidents Retreat held last week, we were told that members can apply NOW for access to these telecommuting benefits … even though the agency-specific plans have not yet been created, submitted, or approved.
With that guidance provided by the UUP leadership, attached is a “draft” telecommuting request document which you may use as an attempt to secure telecommuting benefits.
To be clear, the authority that has been granted to Agencies and Authorities is not likely to be permanent. For example, the GOER guidance issued on June 18 indicates that the COVID 19-telecommuting flexibility related to child and elder care will only continue through September 7, 2021.
Also, UUP would like to know if there are areas where blanket refusal’s to consider telecommuting requests for the categories referenced above are being issued. UUP believes that reporting the blanket denials to the Chancellor and GOER will result in corrective, follow-up action.
In Solidarity,
Ken Kern
Chapter President
UUP Buffalo Center
Telecommuting Request Document can be found here