Exclusive-FTC chairman says COVID is long over, | Stock News

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) – The chairman of the Federal Commerce Fee on Friday acknowledged employees nervousness over returning to full-time within the workplace at an company the place round 80% work from home most of the week, however mentioned the COVID pandemic is long over and staff need to be at their desks.

In a single of his earliest government orders, President Donald Trump ordered federal staff back to the workplace. FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson, who famous that Trump was fulfilling a marketing campaign promise with the order, expects employees to revert to full-time in workplace by March 3, in keeping with an inside memo seen by Reuters.

The combination impact of return to workplace orders and different modifications is predicted to drive annoyed authorities staff out of their jobs, a objective the Trump workforce is explicitly gunning for to help streamline authorities by chopping staffing, rolling back rules and slashing budgets.

Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Elon Musk – who chairs Trump’s authorities effectivity initiative – predicted that revoking “the COVID-era privilege” of telework would set off “a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome.”

Musk, a high Trump donor, ordered Tesla staff in 2022 to be within the workplace 40 hours a week or go away the company. Different U.S. industries, together with banks on Wall Avenue, have taken a comparable return-to-office strategy.

Except for noting the pandemic was over, Ferguson mentioned telework had “undermined the rich and unique culture that long made the FTC one of the best places to work in the federal government.

“I can say from expertise that it is extremely troublesome for a new worker to study the ropes when most of his or her interactions are with faces on laptop screens, relatively than in-person conversations with veterans and mentors,” he added.

But 79% of FTC staff worked from home three or four days a week in 2023, compared with 47% at medium sized agencies across the government, and 23% government-wide, suggesting it could lose a greater number of staff if they decide to quit over the mandate.

The consumer protection and competition enforcement agency has a heavy workload in the years ahead with a full slate of litigation against large companies including Amazon (NASDAQ:), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), and PepsiCo (NASDAQ:).

At the same time, when Trump chose him to lead the agency, Ferguson vowed to “finish Massive Tech’s vendetta towards competitors and free speech.”

If staff were to leave while cases are ongoing and Ferguson is ramping up his agenda, it will significantly impact the agency’s ability to function, said former FTC attorney David Schwartz, now a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.

“The chair’s priorities are going to be those that undergo. These are those that take probably the most work, since you are ranging from the start,” he mentioned.

Ferguson’s memo mentioned the company would abide by cheap lodging beforehand granted to staff as nicely collective bargaining obligations to employees who voted to unionize in September. He acknowledged that employees with distant work preparations might “confront unique difficulties.”

“We are working hard to determine how we can best address those difficulties while still achieving full compliance with the PM (Presidential Memorandum). Finally, we are developing a procedure by which the agency will consider requests for exemptions from the PM in exceptional circumstances,” he mentioned.