NYC, Municipal Union Agree to Contract Allowing Remote Work

Mayor Eric Adams announced late Friday a tentative contract agreement with NYC’s largest municipal union that includes a plan to allow some non-essential city employees to work remotely, starting in June.

The city has agreed to create a “flexible work committee” to find a way to offer some city workers a remote option in a pilot program that would start on June 1.

The new five-year contract between NYC and District Council 37 (DC 37) also will increase wages by 3% each year for the next four years, and 3.25% in the fifth, according to a report in the NY TImes.

Until last week, Mayor Adams had positioned himself as a champion of strict, 5-days-a-week return-to-office policies for all city workers, telling them publicly: “You can’t stay home in your pajamas all day.”

After a late January bargaining session, DC 37 signaled that Adams was shifting his position on hybrid work, telling the union he was willing to negotiate.

The union had made remote work a major issue, telling the city it was unfair to force non-essential city workers to come in to city offices all week when 82% of corporations have adjusted to hybrid work schedules, according to recent surveys.

After DC 37 publicized his shift, Adams confirmed that he had reconsidered his position on hybrid work, primarily because several city agencies are grappling with high vacancy rates—and can’t compete in a labor market where there are ample opportunities for hybrid work.

“We are sending out a survey to our agencies, and we’re saying to our agencies, ‘Come up with creative ways of having flexibility,’” Adams said, at a press conference.

Adams cited two city agencies—the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which manages affordable housing, and the Human Resources Administration, which provides social services—as “recruitment priorities” that are candidates for flexible work schedules.

“There’s a pulse shift that you have to go out now and compete,” Adams said, adding that NYC could no longer rely on “a steady stream of [job] applicants.”

A recent report from the Office of NYC Comptroller highlighted hybrid work as a key solution to what was called the “job vacancy crisis” at several city agencies. The Comptroller listed vacancies by percentage in NYC’s top 10 agencies, with vacancies at social services topping the list at 20%.

NYC is adjusting the reality of the new normal for Manhattan office workers—the city is bustling on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday—emptying out on Friday and Monday.

In a recent earnings call, Steven Roth, CEO of office landlord Vornado, declared that Friday now will be a “holiday forever.”