Trump says federal workers who don't want to return to the office are "going to be dismissed"

Washington — President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that his new administration will challenge a deal reached between the Social Security Administration and its union that would allow employees to continue teleworking into 2029.

During remarks at his South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, Trump blamed the Biden administration for what he said was a "terrible" and "ridiculous" agreement that would allow tens of thousands of federal workers to continue working from home several days a week. 

The president-elect said "it was like a gift to a union, and we're going to obviously be in court to stop it." He said federal workers who don't return to in-office work will be fired.

"If people don't come back to work, come back into the office, they're going to be dismissed," said Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term Jan. 20.

Work-from-home policies for the federal workforce have come under scrutiny by the leaders of Trump's newly created Department of Government Efficiency, billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have said they are looking to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. 

"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home," Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal last month.

Musk then claimed on social media earlier this month that "almost no one" who is employed by the government works in-person, leading to "thousands of empty buildings not just in America, but around the world, paid for with your tax dollars!"

In his remarks from Mar-a-Lago, Trump appeared to be referencing an agreement reached by the Social Security Administration and the American Federation of Government Employees earlier this month. The deal keeps in place the agency's current telework policy until October 2029.

Under the plan, employees must be in the office between two and five days per week, depending on their jobs, according to Bloomberg News. There are roughly 42,000 Social Security Administration workers who are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees.

The agreement was signed by Martin O'Malley, who was tapped to lead the Social Security Administration by President Biden but resigned last month to run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The federal government employs more than 4 million people, including 2.2 million civilians. An August report from the Office of Management and Budget found that as of May, about 54% work every day in roles that aren't eligible for telework. The agency said that personnel who are eligible to work remotely spent 61% of regular working hours in the office.

Of the more than 2 million civilian government workers, 228,000, or 10%, were in remote positions where they were not expected to work in-person on a regular basis, according to the Office of Management and Budget's report.