CA union pushes telecommuting bill as Newsom calls office workers

from Yue Stella YuCalMatters

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

One of California’s largest public employee unions is pushing for legislation to make telecommuting a permanent option for state employees as the clock ticks down on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s July 1 mandate for most employees to be in the office four days a week.

The measureassembly author Alex LeeD-Milpitas, would require state agencies to offer work-from-home options “to the fullest extent practicable” and provide written justifications when requiring employees to work in-person, according to a press release from the California Government Professional Engineers. The union represents more than 15,000 state engineers who work primarily for Caltrans and in environmental agencies.

The bill also requires states to create a dashboard to document the annual savings resulting from telecommuting. The General Services Division, which manages contracts and real estate for the state government, publishes this information until the practice ceases in 2024.

“The intent is absolutely to establish a state policy that flexible telecommuting can and should be made available to state employees because it serves state government, it serves taxpayers and it certainly serves state employees,” said Ted Toppin, the union’s executive director.

Government agencies have widely adopted telecommuting policies that have allowed government employees to save on transportation costs and live wherever they prefer during the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2024, half of government employees will be eligible for telecommuting, and 74% of those workers prefer telecommuting, according to the forecast of the Ministry of General Services at that time.

But Newsom angered thousands of state employees this year by calling them back to work at least two days a week. Last year, he signed a broader mandate requiring most government employees to work at least four days a week, but delayed execution for most by this July – the result of bargaining with several unions, including the engineers union.

However, state agencies were not equipped to carry out the order. Many were missing thousands of workstations before Newsom’s tenure, according to a recent report in The Sacramento Bee. And telecommuting saves money: Allowing government employees to work from home at least three days a week could save the state $225 million a yearaccording to a state auditor’s report in 2024.

“These cost savings and environmental benefits directly benefit the public,” Lee said in a statement to CalMatters, arguing that the measure would also ensure transparency of state agencies’ telecommuting policies.

The intent of the bill is not to rescind Newsom’s order, Toppin said. Rather, it’s to remind policymakers of the benefits that telecommuting can bring, he said.

“Saving money, protecting the environment, reducing traffic, recruiting and training staff. These are common goals for all Californians,” Toppin said.

The engineers union has a reputation for winning at the bargaining table, including getting seniority benefits that increased pay for long-serving employees. Records are maintained by CalMatters Digital Democracy Database show it gave $3.5 million to state lawmakers between 2015 and 2024. The highest outlays were in 2016, when the union gave $422,000 to lawmakers as they debated what became a gas tax hike that blocked funding for transportation projects, and in 2024, when the union gave $497,000 to lawmakers.

The give and take of bringing government workers into the office is playing out as public agencies take different approaches to telecommuting in the wake of the pandemic. Some state agencies already require employees to work in the office at least three days a week, and the Legislature for the most part requires employees to be at the Capitol.

Separately last year, Newsom signed legislation that advanced remote work options for local officials, researchers and members of neighborhood councils and advisory groups.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.