Government contractors, take note. According to the article Let the telecommuting begin… By Gail Repsher Emery (Washington Technology, 10/05/04), "With the publication of an interim procurement rule in today’s Federal Register, federal policy for the first time explicitly permits telecommuting by contractor employees." The change, it is hoped, will make it "...easier for small businesses to recruit and maintain employees for work on government contracts,” according to the notice in the Federal Register.

The rule proposed by the Defense Department, Federal Acquisition Regulation; Telecommuting for Federal Contractors covers three federal agencies: DoD, NASA, and GSA. Comments are requested before Dec. 6, 2004.

My reaction was mixed. On the positive side, the proposed rule takes an inclusive approach to applying the rule. From the start, all contracts are assumed to be open to telecommuting; written justification must be submitted for any that are not suitable.

On the negative side, the proposed wording presumes that those evaluating contract proposals have a negative mindset against teleworking, and prevents them from taking negative actions as a result. For example, a "solicitation cannot contain any evaluation criteria that would reduce the scoring of an offer because the offeror proposes to permit its employees to telecommute." A positive approach would present telework as an advantage, and provide mechanisms by which evaluators could increase the scoring of an offer that encouraged telecommuting.

10:38:09 AM    
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