July 12, 2024
Michaela Althouse/PhillyVoice
A judge denied a request for an emergency injunction to the mayor's return-to-office policy Friday. District Council 47 President April Gigetts, center, said the decision "is going to have a devastating impact."
Philadelphia's 26,000 city workers will have to report to the office Monday after a judge denied an injunction request for Mayor Cherelle Parker's policy that requires in-person work five days per week starting Monday, July 15.
“I promised the City that they would have a government they could see, touch and feel," Parker said in a statement. "... I want every member of our workforce to know: I'm a pro-Union, pro-worker Mayor, and I thank you for all your service every day to make Philadelphia better.”
Over the past two days, counsel for the city and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 47 met for a hearing in the Common Pleas Court. District Council 47, representing white-collar workers for the city, sought an emergency injunction to stop the policy from going into effect Monday.
Following the hearing Friday, Judge Sierra Thomas-Street said the union had not proved the new policy would cause irreparable harm. Union members argued that the in-office requirement will make filling vacancies even harder and pointed to a backlog of Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation requests that have not been approved. An official ruling and recommendation from Thomas-Street are yet to come.
"We want to ensure that we continue to build on the culture and experience that's positive in the workplace," said Camille Duchaussee, the chief administration officer for the city. "We understand that work from home is something that our employees were taking part in, but we all have a shared purpose and our workforce is committed to the shared purpose."
District Council 47 has applied for an expedited arbitration for a more formal legal process about the policy, which will decide whether this topic is subject to collective bargaining. In the interim, employees will have to show up in the office.
"We know this is going to have a devastating impact, some people may leave right away, some people might wait until they get employment," District Council 47 President April Gigetts said. "... We know that it's coming. To what extent, we don't know."
Much of the injunction hung on whether collective bargaining took place for the virtual work policy, which was created in 2018 and updated in 2020 and throughout the pandemic. During that time, the union submitted changes that were eventually put into place. David Wilson, president of District Council 47’s Local 2187, said that process was considered collective bargaining by the union.
“The evidence speaks for itself," he said. "I think our attorneys are doing a great job pointing out concrete emails that have been sent over the span of a year. We engaged in the process of bargaining; I don’t think that’s ever clearer.”
In 2023, the union and the city also engaged in monthly meetings for the alternative work steering committee. During that time, Wilson had submitted changes to the virtual work policy that the city took under consideration. However, Yanee Claiborne, a human resources analyst for the city, said the committee's purpose was to make recommendations, not bargaining.
District Council 47 is also engaging in negotiations with the city for its contract, which expired in June. Wilson and Gigetts said this decision will impact those talks.
"This gives us an opportunity to look a little differently on how we tend to negotiate with this administration," Wilson said.
On Thursday, a number of union members testified about remote work and how it improves their lives. Some said they had submitted ADA accommodation requests in May and had not heard back yet.
To accommodate for workers' needs at home, the city said it plans to offer a new service called Just in Time Care that provides cost-effective backup care for children and elderly family members of city employees. So far, though, it hasn't shared who will qualify for the service.
