In his first major labor negotiation as mayor, Eric Adams agreed to allow remote work for some city workers, a concession that recognizes the new realities of the workplace. But the precedent could prove to be costly as other unions eye additional compensation for employees who cannot work from home.
A tentative contract agreement reached this month with District Council 37, New York City’s largest municipal workers union, includes a pilot program for flexible schedules to begin by June 1, which others may try to replicate or use as a bargaining chip.
“This is potentially a source of tension within the unions as well as between them,” said Joshua Freeman, a labor historian at CUNY. “Is there some compensation that those workers who can't work remotely will get? That’s a little unclear.”
Adams — a former police officer and stalwart defender of in-person work — has expressed concerns about the divisions remote work could create in the city's workforce.
He has said he is worried about establishing a “two-tiered system” of municipal workers and wants to compensate those who cannot work remotely, although he has not specified how.
The mayor has also been cognizant of the fact that people of color make up a large share of the city’s essential workforce.
“I clearly stated that we must have equity,” Adams told reporters during the contract announcement with DC37 officials.
“There are jobs in this union and in this city that cannot work remotely: our police officers, our nurses, our firefighters, our transit operators,” he added.
In the wake of the deal with DC37, some labor leaders who represent city workers required to work in person are now gearing up to demand additional compensation for their members. The city employs pattern bargaining, in which the contract for the first major union sets a framework for those that follow.
The question facing both city officials and union leaders is how much a benefit like remote work is worth.
As the mayor noted, not everyone in DC37 can work remotely. The union is made up of roughly 90,000 members that include a range of positions, including cafeteria workers, 911 operators and parks employees.
Unlike some benefits that carry a monetary value, calculating the value of remote work is difficult. However, one study suggests that employers who require staffers to work in person could require as much as 20% higher compensation than a job that can be done remotely.
Kathryn Wylde, who runs the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group, said that she believed the mayor’s decision to allow remote work enabled the city to save money on wage increases.
The deal with DC37 calls for roughly 3% raises annually across five years. Although the city’s municipal union employees do not contribute toward health care costs, those raises are significantly less than wage increases in the private sector, which have been above 5%.
“He’s facing a budget crunch where allowing remote work is a lot cheaper than salary increases,” Wylde said, adding, “I thought it was a smart play.”
Thea Setterbo, a spokesperson for DC37, said that for those who can work remotely, “it is an invaluable option.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to the question of whether the agreement to allow remote work dampened raises for DC37.
“While we do not negotiate labor deals in the press, the mayor has clearly stated that we must ensure every workforce policy we pilot and implement is viewed through the lens of equity,” said Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for Adams.
“So as we make this shift into the post-pandemic reality, we must do it in a thoughtful way in close collaboration with our partners in labor," he added.
The value of remote work isn’t lost on other union leaders as they enter negotiations.
Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, which has roughly 7,000 members, told Gothamist that his negotiating team plans to “put a number on” remote work as a way to bargain for extra benefits for members.
What form those benefits might take is yet unclear, he added, but Nespoli said they could be related to a range of pocketbook items, from pensions to health care costs.
Above all else, Nespoli said he reminds city officials that sanitation workers were never able to work from home during the pandemic as some city workers did.
“We were mandated to come in,” he said. “We had to keep the city clean.”
The Police Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, also plans to make its case to City Hall. The group is currently undergoing state-supervised arbitration over its contract.
“New York City police officers can’t protect our city remotely. We need to be on the streets, just as we were throughout the entire pandemic. We deserve to be compensated for the unique challenges of our job,” said Patrick Lynch, the union’s president, in a statement to Gothamist.
Whatever the cost going forward, experts say that Adams is in a difficult bind over remote work. In a post-pandemic world, the flexibility could help the city with recruitment as it struggles to fill jobs. Advocates of flexible or hybrid schedules say the arrangement gives workers a better work-life balance and allows them to save money and commuting time.
“Attracting talent and being competitive is going to require flexible work hours,” Wylde said.
Employers, she added, have been willing to embrace remote work in part because it has not hurt productivity or their bottom line.
A recent survey from her organization found that 82% of employers plan to keep a hybrid workplace as their “predominant policy” in 2023.
“I think the mayor began to realize that we’re living in a different era,” Wylde said. “And he’s treating remote work like a fringe benefit.”