Duty Location Changes/Telework Denial
Summary of the Situation
DCMA's mission is to administer and provide oversight of the contracts issued to private defense contractors. DCMA has offices and satellite offices all over the United States and some overseas. DCMA for the most part leases these offices and does not always place these offices in locations where defense contractors reside. For some unknown reason, DCMA seems to prefer to place DCMA offices in the most illogical places, in downtown areas where there are no defense contractors or customers and where employees must pay for parking, commute long distances to work and to the contractors. DCMA, because of the type of work it performs, would be an ideal federal agency for employees to participate in a (employee and family friendly) Telework program, but DCMA refuses to allow this.
The Details
DCMA is notorious for relocating its offices without any concern for the employees or where they live. A good example of just how illogical and unfair DCMA can be is the recent DCMA Dallas relocation. DCMA Dallas is a regional office with most of its employees handling contractors scattered all over the northern half of Texas, into Oklahoma and Arkansas. With most of these contractors being in the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex area, including the surrounding counties, DCMA Dallas had satellite offices in Fort Worth, Arlington, Richardson, Grand Prairie, McKinney along with its main office in Downtown Dallas. DCMA Dallas knew that their lease was coming due and that it would not be renewed.
So does DCMA Dallas look for an office somewhere in the mid-cities? I'm sure they thought about it, but what ended up happening pretty well tells the tale. DCMA Dallas started out by closing the Fort Worth office and moving all those employees into the Arlington office (half way between Dallas and Fort Worth). The next year when it came time for the main office in Downtown Dallas to move, DCMA Dallas closed the offices in Arlington and Richardson and forced all those employees move into the new location where the main DCMA office is located in downtown Dallas. Not only did they force the employees in these satellite offices to move into downtown Dallas, they also forced the employees out of the local contractor facilities to move their desk into the downtown Dallas office. Why is this illogical? Because there are no contractors in the downtown Dallas area, but that is where everyone is being forced to report to their duty station. Employees who must visit contractors in order to accomplish their duties must maintain their desk and computer in the downtown Dallas office. They must commute back and forth from home to work, sometimes across three counties, in order to accomplish their job. If they go directly to a contractor's facility in Fort Worth, they still have to drive to Dallas in order to read their email, read agency regulations (all computerized), to complete their computer inputs, to input their time accounting and to write Corrective Action Requests to their contractors.
Why is DCMA Dallas management so intent on having as many employees in the downtown Dallas office as they can possibly get? Think about this, more people means more room to control. Cram the employees in as small a cubicle as possible, limit the size of the break area by calling the conference room a dual use conference room/break area and the Commander, managers and supervisors all get bigger offices. If you are one of those agency officials who makes decisions in this matter, don't relocate the office into the mid-cities area or central to all the contractors and convenient to the airport, that might extend your daily commute (ignore the impact on employees or their needs).
This situation would have been ideal for Telework because many of the employees who are currently forced to commute across Fort Worth to Dallas could work from either their homes or from contractor facilities and take care of the contractors in their local area. AFGE Local 2128 sent DCMA Dallas written proposals concerning Telecommuting in an attempt to reduce the adverse impact of this relocation of bargaining unit employees, but would DCMA negotiate with the union on this? NO The Local was told by DCMA management that DCMA Headquarters was engaged in negotiating Telework with AFGE Council 170 and that there was no need to negotiate it locally in relation to this relocation. Well AFGE Council 170 sent DCMA Headquarters written Telework proposals way back in July 2003 and to date, DCMA has not met with Council 170 to complete those negotiations. Not only that, Telework has been an open article in the Master Agreement for at least the past five years and DCMA has yet to negotiate it with AFGE at any level. In the mean time, employees who live in the outlying areas are being forced to commute into downtown Dallas. A local commute to work that used to take 20 minutes one way, now takes over an hour. Parking that was free at the satellite offices, now costs employees a daily charge. Not to mention the fact that Dallas has the worse commuter traffic anywhere in the metroplex.
DCMA had the opportunity to reduce the adverse impact on bargaining unit employees that is associated with this office relocation, they simply chose not to do so. This is not the only situation like this either. DCMA has consistently failed and refused to negotiate Telework arrangements with AFGE at all levels, all at the expense of the bargaining unit employees. DCMA's attitude is that if employees are going to Telework, they must do so as the agency commands and there will be no bargaining with employee representatives on this subject. DCMA employees are being held hostage simply because their representatives attempt to bargain procedures and arrangements. If the union won't allow the agency to unilaterally dictate all of the terms for Telework, then DCMA will not negotiate and the employees do not get to participate.
Return to The Employer of Choice??? page
Return to AFGE Local 2128 Home Page.