State Personnel – Teleworking Programs, Policies, and Guidelines – Requirements
Impact
The legislation is expected to significantly impact the operational frameworks of state agencies by formalizing the procedures surrounding telework. An important aspect of this bill is its requirement for the University System of Maryland to include teleworking terms in their consolidated memoranda of understanding. Through this, the bill aims to foster a culture of flexibility and adaptability within the state's workforce, allowing state employees to maintain productivity even amidst challenges, such as communicable disease outbreaks.
Summary
House Bill 528 seeks to establish comprehensive requirements for teleworking programs, policies, and guidelines within the Maryland state government. This includes defining eligibility criteria for employees wishing to telework, which must be based on the employees' performance evaluations, job classification, and the successful completion of any necessary probationary periods. The bill mandates that applications for teleworking must be processed expeditiously, with an emphasis on ensuring that no qualified employee's request can be denied without proper justification.
Contention
One point of contention surrounding HB528 relates to the extent of autonomy given to state management versus the rights of employees. The bill stipulates that appropriate officials must provide written notice of any termination of a telework agreement, fostering transparency, but critics may argue this does not sufficiently protect employees against autoregressive policies that might capriciously affect their teleworking status. Additionally, the implications of such policy shifts raise questions about the potential need for ongoing evaluation of teleworking's impact on both performance and accountability within state functions.
Implements requirements and guidelines to reduce chronic absenteeism including attendance reporting, attendance review teams, tiered strategies, early warning systems, and attendance policies.
Requiring Effective Management and Oversight of Teleworking Employees Act or the REMOTE ActThis bill directs executive agencies to track employees' computer network activity, compare the activity of teleworking and on-site employees, and report on any deficiencies in the performance of teleworking employees.First, the bill requires each agency to establish policies to track for every employee (1) the average number of daily logins, (2) the average daily duration of the network connection, and (3) the network traffic generated while the employee works. This information must be collected from employees working primarily on-site within 180 days after the bill's enactment and from teleworking employees within one year after the bill's enactment. The bill also directs each agency to publish this data in the agency’s fiscal year budget justification materials, including a comparison of the average login rates of on-site and teleworking employees.Next, the bill directs any manager who revokes a teleworking employee's authorization to telework (due to a reason specific to that employee) to document for the employee and the agency's Human Capital Office (1) the total number of days that the employee teleworked in the six work periods immediately preceding the revocation, (2) a narrative summary of the circumstances giving rise to the revocation, and (3) any steps the manager took to discipline the employee before revoking the employee's telework authorization. Finally, agencies must report to the Chief Human Capital Officers Council about any adverse effects of telework policies on the performance of the executive agency.