AT&T employees are protesting the company’s return to the office, urging the company to make working from home a permanent option for workers.
AT&T and the Communications Workers of America, the body that represents the company’s workers, agreed to extend work from home until the end of March 2023, but workers say the company is forcing many workers to return to the office much earlier, while other departments have already been forced back to the office by their managers.
According to Chuck Elgert, communication technician at AT&T and executive vice president of CWA Local 6350 in St Louis, Missouri, AT&T has an aging workforce, and the company has workplace surveillance tools that allow managers to monitor the work that workers are doing from home and make necessary changes.
“We don’t understand if we’re still in a pandemic, we’re still considered essential workers and we’re still doing the appropriate job then why are we coming back to the office? There’s no reason to risk anybody’s health and safety that’s not 100% necessary to run the operations of the business,” Elgert said.
Another worker, Val Williams, criticized the pushback to return to the office because AT&T is a communications company that has the technology and resources to make working from home a seamless option.
The sources for this piece include an article in The Guardian.