we’re no longer allowed to park at work, with no alternatives

A reader writes:

I work for a company that is currently contracted to a government agency, in a suburban area next to a major highway. We work in a very secure, gated government-operated building, alongside federal employees. Armed security guards, microchipped photo IDs, badge-readers on internal and external doors that are coded to your specific work hours, etc. My company’s work is of a kind that was never able to be done remotely, even during Covid, whereas many of our federal colleagues have been either fully or partially remote for years.

Under the current administration, however, nearly all government employees have had to start returning to the office this year, which has been a bumpy ride, to say the least. We’ve dealt with more people in the building than we’re used to, having to give up space in our office, breakroom fridge spats, parking lot congestion, added security measures, etc. Mistakenly, I thought that would be the worst of it.

Just this week, we were notified by our government overlords that that due to an influx of their employees adhering to an upcoming RTO deadline, my company’s employees will no longer be allowed to park in the building parking lot. Full stop. Even management! The only exception is those with a registered handicap parking placard. They are literally re-coding our badges so that they will no longer open the parking lot gates.

Needless to say, we are livid. People have talked about going on strike (unlikely to happen, even less likely to fix anything), and many are considering quitting.

The first solution that we were given was for all of us (100+) to park down the street in the parking lot of the nearby train station. This is roughly a 3/4-mile walk, in an area of town that is not considered safe, down an unlit, un-guardrailed sidewalk that sits along a busy highway. Some of us start work at 6 am, others don’t leave until 7 pm or later (sometimes as late as 9:30 pm). We also live in the south, where temperatures are already reaching the mid-90s during the day and will only get worse for the next few months. Adding 1.5 miles of outdoor walking to our days is unsafe in more ways than one. Many of our employees are older and/or not in great health (though not eligible for handicapped parking). Many live 45 minutes to an hour away, which is not accessible through public transit.

The update to that plan was that ACTUALLY, the train station parking lot enforces towing, and we have no permission to be able to use it. So if anyone does choose to park there, they’re doing so at their own risk, and the company assumes no liability and would not help with towing costs. And if 100+ cars suddenly showed up in my parking lot, you can believe I would be towing them pronto.

It’s a suburban area so there are no parking garages or anything of the sort, absolutely no public parking of any kind. Everything belongs to businesses, etc.

This also effectively means that none of us will be able to return to our cars if we forgot something, and certainly no leaving for lunch. All but a handful of us are hourly, non-exempt employees. Our lunch break is only 30 minutes, and there are no restaurants within walking distance. Our building has no on-site cafeteria, only vending machines. Some employees have already been bringing their lunch and eating in their cars because there hasn’t been sufficient space in the breakroom.

The concerns are, roughly in order of severity:

1. Having no legal, safe place to park our cars.
2. If we do take the chance to park somewhere else, having to then walk the rest of the distance (which would almost certainly be close to a mile, if not more) in an unsafe way.
3. Losing access to our cars during the day and being unable to leave for breaks.

Management, since they are also being given the boot, has allegedly been working tirelessly to try to get something done, but at this point we don’t even know what a workable solution would look like. They were told that there’s nothing in our company’s contract that guarantees on-site parking, and that our counterparts in New York and D.C. do just fine without it (gee, I wonder what the difference is?). There were murmurs about trying to set up a shuttle, but from where?

I’m sure the answer is that this is all perfectly legal and that they’re within their rights to do so, but also … what the hell?

What the hell, indeed.

And yes, it’s legal. There’s no legal requirement that an employer provide parking — safe, close, or otherwise.

But it’s ridiculously impractical. If your work could be done from home, I’d suggest that all of you flat-out tell your company that because you currently have nowhere to park at work, you’ll need to work at home until the company solves the parking problem. But since your jobs can’t be done from home, that’s out.

This is a prime time to push back as a group. You don’t need to have a solution; you just need to speak with one voice and say that the current plan is untenable and the company needs to fix it. Your right to organize as a group for better working conditions is protected under the National Labor Relations Act; most people think of that as the law that protects unions, but it also protects you if you and your coworkers are acting as a group even without a union. (And maybe this is an impetus to think seriously about whether you want a union, if your company is going to deal with you in such bad faith.)

What your company could actually do depends on what options are in the area, but at a minimum they should be looking into renting parking space locally and/or making that idea of shuttles a reality.

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