(Bloomberg) — The US Securities and Exchange Commission has instructed all staff to return to the office full time starting April 14, according to an agency-wide email reviewed by Bloomberg.
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The message follows an executive order mandating in-person work as the Trump administration slashes the size of the federal government and fires thousands of workers.
The SEC directive, sent Wednesday by the agency’s chief operating officer, covers the unionized workforce, with limited exceptions “for the time being.” Those include employees who already have full-time remote arrangements or who have telework locations more than 50 miles from an SEC office.
The agency’s chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents SEC employees, said in a message to members Wednesday that it will fight the mandate. The union told workers to prepare to comply with the return-to-work order while it files a formal grievance. The union’s contract with the agency, inked in 2023, allows for remote work.
“This action by SEC management plainly violates the contract it entered into with you, its union-represented employees, and it violates the law,” according to the email.
Donald Trump on his first day in office ordered heads of departments and agencies to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements.” The White House on Wednesday told federal agencies to submit plans by March 13 for “large-scale reductions in force” and to submit proposals to move offices out of Washington and into “less costly parts of the country.”
An SEC spokesperson said the agency was requiring bargaining unit employees to return to the office to comply with the presidential memorandum and guidance from the Office of Personnel Management.
–With assistance from Lydia Beyoud.
(Updates with comment from SEC in the last paragraph.)
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