Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) recently called for an investigation into government workers who are now working remotely due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In a video posted to Twitter, Ernst asked government agencies to audit work-from-home employees to make sure they’re producing quality work. “We’ve got to make sure that everyone is meeting those benchmarks and that productivity is happening,” Ernst said in the video. “If they’re not, we’re coming after them.” The message was met with swift opposition from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents federal workers. The union pointed out how government employees have already been subject to unprecedented levels of scrutiny during the pandemic and criticized Ernst’s suggestion that agencies target their own workers. “This kind of witch-hunt against our members could not come at a worse time, as federal employees are shouldering an immense workload in the midst of a pandemic that has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said in a statement. “The real scandal is that like many of his colleagues in Congress, Senator Ernst has failed to give federal employees the pay adjustments and additional workplace safety protections they need.”
