Metro construction could keep some feds home longer

The Office of Personnel Management has pushed for agencies to consider telework and workplace flexibilities beyond the needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as construction on the Washington, D.C., Metro system will cause public transportation disruptions in the area throughout the summer.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority plans to shut down nine stations on the Orange and Silver lines west of the Ballston station in Virginia in order to conduct platform maintenance. And though WMATA initially planned to reopen those stations by September, the need to socially distance construction crews and challenges with supply chains have caused uncertainty for that planned timeline.

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As a result, OPM “strongly encouraged” agencies to consider how best to extend workplace flexibilities for employees that could be impacted by these closures. Those flexibilities include telework and alternative work schedules.

“Ultimately, individual agencies are best positioned to determine any additional impacts that the WMATA project will have on their workforce during COVID-19,” acting OPM Director Michael Rigas wrote in a June 1 memo to agency chief human capital officers.

“Agencies should be prepared to provide guidance to their employees on potential workplace flexibilities that may be available. Protecting our personnel and stakeholders from the effects of the COVID-19, while preserving the agency’s ability to complete its mission, is the foundation of any agency plan.”

Many such employees are already on telework and flexible work schedules due to social distancing requirements caused by the coronavirus pandemic that began shutting down federal offices in March of this year.

OPM and the Office of Management and Budget announced April 20 that federal leaders should plan to reopen agency offices in three phases, in line with the three phase opening plans scheduled for individual states.

Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., both entered into their first phases of reopening over the weekend. The April guidance encouraged agencies to consider new work arrangements during this period, with vulnerable populations still kept on maximum telework. Metro construction is likely to throw an additional and as yet unpredictable complication into agency plans for reopening.

According to the June OPM memo, the impacts to the metro construction project’s timeline are still an unknown, and WMATA plans to announce an updated reopening date later this summer.

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