Give city workers a remote work option
After more than a year and a half of working remotely, more than 300,000 city workers were ordered to return to the office this fall. They often found themselves in cramped offices with poor ventilation and unclear guidance on wearing masks. Workers pushed for remote work policies and additional investments in the city’s substandard air heating, cooling and filtration systems — but the de Blasio administration has largely ignored the concerns of the public servants who kept New York City running during the pandemic. This has been especially cruel to workers with chronic health issues, disabilities and young children.
The new city government must stand with public sector workers and offer a remote option to all city workers who can do their jobs at home.
I’ve been meeting and organizing with City Workers for Justice since day one of their campaign for worker justice and a remote work option, because the fight for safe, inclusive workplace policies isn’t just a matter of what’s right for the city, it’s also personal for me. I know firsthand how hard it can be to advocate for yourself in the workplace, particularly as a young woman living with lupus. As a tenant organizer and then as a staffer in the Council, I had to create workplace accommodations directly with my employer, specifically a workfrom-home policy. While both of my employers worked with me to develop a disability accommodation that gave me the option to work remotely one day per week, my accommodations were non-standard, and did not become part of a broader, formalized policy that all workers in the office could access.
Disability justice advocates have been calling for remote options for years; COVID taught us that they are practical and should become standard practice for workplace protections. While some roles must be in person, particularly those that are more community-facing, overwhelming research has found that workers who can be remote are more productive at home. In a 2013 study, the Harvard Business Review found that many workers spend 60% of their time at work in meetings. After lockdown, researchers replicated their same study using the same methodology, finding that lockdown has increased productivity: Workers spend less time in meetings and commuting.
In conversations with advocates, a city worker at the Housing and Preservation Department reported experiencing less productivity since the return-to-work mandate was issued. This is consistent with what we often hear from working parents without adequate child-care options.
Returning to work in person is not just an issue of productivity and convenience. It’s also a health concern for many. Some workers actually saw their health improve while working remotely.
One worker organizing with City Workers for Justice was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease during the pandemic. “I was constantly sick, catching everything that anyone had in the office,” they noted in an interview with the coalition. “Only once I was removed from that environment and not getting every illness going around was my doctor able to eliminate the noise and pinpoint my disease.”
Another public servant the coalition spoke with found no flexibility in the city’s workplace accommodations, and now is forced to risk COVID exposure while their wife is pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy. When the worker asked their HR department for flexibility, they were told to use their vacation days.
Pressed on many of these questions on Monday, Mayor de Blasio said that mandatory vaccinations and meticulous attention to the workplaces makes them safe; he added that managers have the flexibility to make accommodations when necessary to protect, say, immunocompromised family members. Workers’ experience says otherwise.
Under the next mayor, New York City’s workers need a standard telework option, like what state Sen. Leroy Comrie is pushing at the state level. All of us should be able to access safe and clear workforce policies by default, and not be left at the whim of arbitration or the goodwill of a supervisor. As one Department of Education worker explained, “accommodations as a system is a poor replacement for a sustainable, full-scope remote work option. Several of my colleagues who are pregnant, have chronic medical conditions, and/or at-risk family members are either being forced in while waiting for an accommodation or have been rejected.”
As we build out more inclusive remote work policies, we must also make sure workplace conditions are upgraded for all workers. That means not only consistent masking policies and regular, free COVID-19 testing, but also accessible physical infrastructure for wheelchair users and ASL interpretation at all-staff meetings.
We must transform the way we look at work and productivity in New York City. Allowing workers a work-from-home option will keep them safe and allow parents and caretakers to not have to choose between familial responsibilities and work. Mandatory vaccinations for all public workers is one measure I proudly support, but the city must take the next step for true disability justice and worker justice by instituting standard telework options for all.
Hanif, elected in November, will represent Park Slope and other neighborhoods in the City Council.
Joe Cyr variant that has infected close to 20% of NYC’s population, it will be a miracle if anyone escapes infection! Please, Mr. Adams, allow workers to work from home when you take office.
Carol McDonald