Back to work! Seattle City Council staff ordered to return in person 4 days a week

Workers who support the Seattle City Council will soon be required to return to the office four out of five days per week.

Council President Sara Nelson announced the new policy in a memo to employees Tuesday.

“When it comes right down to it, this is a business needs issue,” Nelson said in an interview with KUOW, adding that members of the council and their staff are already in the office every day they’re not visiting their districts.

“We're all together and yet we also need then the support of the policy analysts and all the support staff,” she said.

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The new return-to-office (RTO) policy was announced the same day the City Council approved a new labor contract with more than 7,000 city employees. Representatives from the coalition of city employee unions didn’t respond to questions about the new policy.

Nelson said the return-to-office policy and contract are separate issues, but she didn’t want to muddy the waters by announcing the change while negotiations were underway.

The city legislative department’s new policy is broader than many employers in the area. Amazon, for example, has emerged as one of the toughest RTO enforcers, but it only expects corporate workers to be in person three days per week.

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Workers rights advocates say flexibility is an equity issue, allowing more people with caregiver needs and disabilities to participate in the workforce. Federal labor data since the pandemic appears to back up that claim, with record rates of new moms and people with disabilities working.

“There were important gains for the disabled population in relation to remote work,” said Nora Genster, who works with employers to develop disability inclusive workplaces in her role with Northwest Center. “What we see now though is a return to office, is a call to return to the way that things were done, which worries me because the work of being inclusive, it's not a sprint; it's a marathon.”

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Nelson said she is sensitive to those concerns, but also thinks the RTO mandate is an equity issue.

“We're all frontline workers in democracy in the legislative department,” Nelson said. “Our role is to represent the people, and so it shouldn't be the lower salaried people that have to be here all the time.”

The new policy will take effect June 24.