The New York Times’ unions are trying to stop the Gray Lady from imposing a policy that will track whether workers are complying with its return-to-office mandate, according to a new report.
The New York Times Guild, which represents the majority of the newsroom workers, and the Times Tech Guild, which includes over 600 Times tech staffers, sent cease-and-desist letters to management last week, Axios reported Tuesday.
The publication had informed staff that it would raise its three-days-per-week requirement to an additional fourth day beginning Sept. 3, 2024, Axios said.
As part of the new policy, newsroom leaders may periodically monitor badge swipe data to review attendance trends and it “may flag individuals with particularly low attendance,” Semafor had reported.
The Times denied it has plans to ask employees to return four days a week in 2024.
We believe that allowing people the flexibility to work together in the office at times and remotely at other times benefits everyone by ensuring that we maintain the strong, collaborative environment that has come to define our culture and drive our success,” the rep told The Post on Tuesday.
The spokesperson did not elaborate on badge monitoring but noted that The Times’ policy states that hybrid employees should be in the office two to three days a week with each department head determining the exact number of days.
The Times’ unions did not immediately return requests for comment.
The New York Times Guild told Axios that monitoring badge swipes to surveil office attendance violates its new contract, which it inked in May after more than two years of acrimonious negotiations.
A Times rep shot back that the contract does, however, acknowledge that the company has a right to enforce its return-to-office policies.
The rep added the changes that were spurred by the pandemic and were always meant to be temporary.
A deal has not yet been reached with the tech workers’ union, which was ratified in 2022.
The Times Tech Guild argued that monitoring the swipes “violates their status quo, or the terms and conditions set at the time that were union ratified in 2022.”
The status quo remains in place until the Tech Guild negotiates a contract with management, but a Times rep told Axios that the publication’s return-to-office policies were introduced before the Tech Guild was recognized.
“We think it’s a violation of status quo to suddenly change this without bargaining with us,” Goran Svorcan-Merola, an iOS developer for the Times’ games department, who serves as vice chair of the Tech Guild, told Axios.
He added: “What we want is a RTO (return to office) plan, or lack thereof, that is bargained as part of a complete agreement with our contract.”
