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Washington, D.C. – The Social Security Administration is violating its employee contracts with an inappropriately aggressive implementation of the president’s executive orders on collective bargaining, according to Maryland’s two U.S. Senators.

Sen. Ben Cardin and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, in a letter to SSA leadership, accuse the agency of abrogating its collective bargaining agreements by taking away employee rights that were expressly negotiated by the parties in current contracts.

“We understand that SSA cannot disregard these executive orders, but we do not understand why SSA is implementing these orders with more hostility towards its workforce than the executive orders require (and possibly even more hostility than they permit),” the senators wrote to the acting commissioner and associate commissioner of the SSA.

NTEU represents about 1,700 employees at the Office of Hearings Operations within the SSA and the collective bargaining agreement is currently open for renegotiation. Earlier this month, the agency – following the guidance from the May 25 executive orders -- made a series of unilateral changes during bargaining that erode important employee rights. These include removing NTEU office space at the agency and banning NTEU communications with employees through agency email.

“Federal law recognizes and encourages NTEU’s presence in the workplace because it adds value to the overall relationship between labor and management,” said NTEU National President Tony Reardon. “Just yesterday we argued in federal court that the president’s executive orders violate existing labor-management relations law, and the SSA does not have the right to abrogate existing contracts or refuse to bargain in good faith.”

The new SSA policy on communicating with employees through agency email is punitive and absurd.

“For instance, employees can make personal phone calls from work but a union steward cannot make a phone call, on their own time, concerning a representational matter because that would constitute use of agency space for union activities,” Reardon said. “And, elected worker representatives are being told they cannot email bargaining unit members related to an employee workplace issue or be given a dedicated private place to meet with these individuals. Senators Cardin and Van Hollen are right to be concerned and I thank them for calling on SSA leaders to account for their actions.”

In June, Cardin and Van Hollen were among 45 senators who urged President Trump to rescind the executive orders.

NTEU represents 150,000 employees at 33 federal agencies and departments.