A union of federal employees has sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an effort to show that the EPA applied its remote-work policy unfairly and unevenly.
On Oct. 20, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the EPA violated the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by not releasing documents related to the telework policy.
On May 6, the union requested information on which management employees were approved to work from home in 2022.
It also sought a copy of a 2019 telework policy issued by the EPA's Air and Radiation Division, which was cited when an employee's request to telework was denied. The EPA released some of the documents requested but not all of them, according to the lawsuit.
The EPA "is frustrating [the union's] efforts to adequately advocate for and educate its members regarding the EPA's telework policies and their potentially unequal application to different employees," the lawsuit stated. The EPA declined to comment on the allegations.
FOIA requires federal agencies to respond to public requests for records, including electronic files, to increase public understanding of government operations and provide access to government information.
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