Over 100 members of the Brooklyn Defender Services Union rallied on Thursday to denounce a decision that compels all staff to return to the office five days a week and sign in electronically at the beginning and end of each workday through a third-party app.
The union said Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, implemented a new workplace policy that will now track all employee location data. In addition, remote work options were rescinded, requiring staff to return to the office five days per week.
Union members, who picketed in front of their office at 180 Livingston St., are against these policies as it "displays a distrust in staff" despite employees who are required to work at multiple office locations, courts, detention centers or in the community each day, the union said.
“We are here to protest this draconian proposal to have us in the office five days a week, clocking in and clocking out with a surveillance app,” said Becca Orleans, a criminal defense attorney at BDS, in an address to staff at the picket. “It doesn’t serve us and it doesn’t serve our clients. These proposed changes make our job unsustainable, and we know that our clients are best represented when we can stay in this job long term and not have people cycling through every couple years when they are burning out.”
Andrew Foltz-Morrison, a data scientist in the Criminal Defense Practice, said he joined Brooklyn Defenders to help fight against unjust systems of police surveillance.
"I served on our union’s bargaining committee to help stand up for workers’ rights. To me and many of my fellow ALAA members, these fights are deeply intertwined. By demanding that workers use an intrusive surveillance app, BDS management is asking all of us to compromise the very values that drew us to this work to begin with," he said in a statement.
The union said the new policy is not commensurate with other public defenders or similarly situated public interest law offices in the city in which staff have the right to telecommute multiple days a week.
It disproportionately impacts the organization’s lowest-paid employees, the union said, compounding the stress and financial costs associated with their work.
As of July 1, Brooklyn Defender Services assumed the criminal defense contract previously held by Queens Defenders.
"Increased time commuting and being tied to a desk means that we will have less time to address our needs and will increase the stresses in our lives. We will have to pay for more gas, more for transit fares, more for elder care, more for child care and more in convenience costs," said Stanley Beltre, administrative and paralegal representative of the BDS Union and senior client services receptionist.
On June 6, 2025, Brooklyn Defender Services informed its staff that it would be shifting from a three-day per week in-office requirement to a mix of four or five days in the office, depending on the position and seniority of the employee, a spokesperson for BDS said via email.
In terms of the requirement to clock in and out when an employee has arrived at work, or is departing, this is a reinstatement of a process that existed prior to the pandemic and had been in place in our Queens office (formerly Queens Defenders) until July 1, 2025, the spokesperson added.
"BDS will only be aware of an employee’s location at the time they clock in and out. This is a reasonable measure to ensure attendance for payroll and to ensure accountability to our funders," the spokesperson said.
In terms of the location services, the office implemented a mobile version of the app for the convenience of staff and all staff have a BDS phone that they should be using rather than their personal device. The app only works when location services are on and that is to ensure staff are located in their workplace when they clock in. Staff can easily turn if off when not using it. Alternatively, staff can use their BDS laptop to sign in inside the office if they prefer, according to the spokesperson.
The union is hoping Schreibersdorf will come to the bargaining table and reverse the policy changes.
