Mayor Parker’s return-to-office policy will take effect Monday after surviving legal challenge

For the first time since March 2020, all city workers will be required to work in-person on a full-time basis starting Monday after a Philadelphia judge on Friday sided with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and rejected an emergency lawsuit challenging the policy.

The ruling by Common Pleas Court Judge Sierra L. Thomas-Street is a high-profile win for Parker, who has said she wants all workers back in the office to bolster the Center City economy and as a matter of fairness for the city employees who cannot telecommute, such as police officers and trash collectors.

“Mayor Parker promised the city that they would have a government that they could see, touch, and feel. She promised measurable results,” said Chief Administrative Officer Camille Duchaussee, a top administration official. “Today’s decision is a giant step toward realizing those promises. We have the talent in the city.”

The suit was brought by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 47, which represents white-collar city workers such as engineers and midlevel supervisors and has about 3,700 members. The union argued that it was illegal for the city to impose the policy on unionized employees without going through collective bargaining.

“We’re very disappointed with the judge’s decision,” union president April Gigetts said. “We’re disappointed that she did not see the harm this is going to cause our members.”

The ruling may not be the final word on the issue. The union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint over the policy, and has requested the city participate in arbitration proceedings over it.

But Gigetts said D.C. 47 members will respect the ruling and report for work Monday — even though she also expects many to begin looking for other jobs.

In her brief remarks about her decision, Thomas-Street said she ruled against the union in part because it had failed to show that its members would suffer irrevocable harm due to the policy, a necessary condition for her to issue an emergency injunction.

The policy will set Philadelphia apart as the only large Northeast city that has required all employees to return to in-person work five days a week.

» READ MORE: Other Northeast U.S. cities have brought municipal workers back to the office. Just not every day like Philly.

Thomas-Street announced the ruling from the bench after two days of testimony and argument in a City Hall courtroom, with each side presenting several witnesses. Duchaussee testified Friday that the administration believes it will be better able to achieve Parker’s policy goals by bringing workers back to the office.

“It’s extremely important that there is a culture of collaboration, a culture of innovation, a culture of communication,” she said. “You optimize that and you create that culture more so through in-person work ... than you do in the virtual space.”

D.C. 47 leaders have said it will exacerbate the city’s staffing crisis by making city jobs less attractive compared to private sector opportunities that offer more flexible schedules. As of the end of March, 17% of full-time city jobs were unfilled.

“We know that it’s coming. To what extent, we don’t know,” Gigetts said, adding that her union will attempt to track how many of its members leave the city due to the policy.

Much of the case centered on whether the administration had the right to move forward without bargaining with the union.

Lawyers for both sides went through minute details of the process for issuing the current work-from-home policies, which were established after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic under former Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration. Kenney empowered department heads to handle their staffs’ telecommuting arrangements, and many city employees are now permitted to work from home two to three days per week.

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker defends her strict return-to-office policy for city workers a day before the dispute heads to court

Kenney’s team met with union officials while crafting its policies, and D.C. 47 lawyers argued those meetings constituted bargaining sessions and that the city must come back to the bargaining table to undo the current policies.

Parker administration lawyers, meanwhile, said the meetings were merely consultations with union leaders about the changes, noting that the stated purpose was to produce recommendations, not a binding agreement.