Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Return Employees to Understaffed Work Sites to Reopen Now Act of 2023” or the “RETURN Act of 2023”.
Return Employees to Understaffed Work Sites to Reopen Now Act of 2023
A BILL
To require the head of each agency to establish a plan to resume in-person operations, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Agency plans to resume in-person operations
Definitions— In this section:
Agency— The term agency has the meaning given the term in section 101 of title 31, United States Code.
Covered agreement— The term covered agreement means an agreement between an agency and a labor organization that—
is entered into before the date on which the agency submits a plan under subsection (b)(1); and
relates to the resumption of in-person operations by the agency.
Employee— The term employee means an employee of an agency.
Essential Government service— The term essential Government service, with respect to an agency, includes—
the facilitation of the delivery, receipt, processing, or issuance of a document, fund, or permit;
the facilitation of access to public lands or another public space that is open to the public for use;
the conduction of an in-person activity or interaction that is required by law to be performed in person; and
the conduction of an inspection or other in-person activity that cannot be replicated virtually or without a physical presence.
Official work site— The term official work site means the place where an employee works, or at which the activities of an employee are based, as determined by the employing agency.
Remote work— The term remote work means an arrangement under which an employee is scheduled to perform the work of the employee at an alternative work site.
Plans—
In general— Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the head of each agency shall submit to Congress and publish on the website of the agency a plan for the agency to resume in-person operations.
Contents— Subject to paragraph (3), the plan of an agency required under paragraph (1) shall include—
the policy of the agency with respect to permitting permanent remote work capabilities for employees who can successfully achieve the duties of those employees away from the official work sites of those employees, which shall include, if applicable, the policy of the agency under section 6502(a)(1) of title 5, United States Code;
requirements for employees that, as part of the duties of those employees, handle original documents issued by the Federal Government or a State government that contain sensitive or private information to return to the official work sites of those employees;
explicit guidelines for protecting sensitive or private information if any employee described in subparagraph (B) must perform remote work;
metrics to measure the work productivity of employees performing remote work to identify employees that fail to fulfill the duties of those employees;
a plan to provide essential Government services in person for individuals in the United States;
a contingency plan in the event that the rate of COVID–19 transmission increases in a region in which official work sites of employees of the agency are located, which shall be based on metrics for COVID–19 transmission to trigger the contingency plan established by the agency;
an assurance that the agency will update the physical address of any employee of the agency who permanently moves for the purposes of determining whether the employee is eligible to receive a comparability payment under section 5304 of title 5, United States Code; and
measures to prepare for future public health emergencies that can be quickly implemented if remote work becomes necessary.
Labor agreements— If a plan submitted by an agency under paragraph (1) conflicts with any provision of a covered agreement to which the agency is a party, the head of the agency shall, not later than 60 days after the date on which the agency submits the plan under that paragraph, after consultation with the applicable labor organization, and notwithstanding any other provision of law or regulation regarding the covered agreement, modify the covered agreement so that the covered agreement is consistent with, and complies with, the terms of that plan.
GSA report— Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the head of each agency shall submit to the Administrator of General Services a report on the physical work spaces used by the agency that recommends the termination of any leases of the agency for physical work spaces that are underused by the agency.