State workers get a reprieve from Newsom’s return-to-office mandate

Gov. Gavin Newsom is open to giving California public employees a temporary break on his return-to-office mandate.

The union representing about 14,000 state engineers announced a deal that would delay Newsom’s order that they return to work four days a week for one year. It was supposed to take effect July 1.

The Professional Engineers in California Government disclosed that agreement alongside a new contract that includes some concessions Newsom wanted to trim payroll expenses as he tries to shore up a $12 billion budget deficit.

Workers represented by the union will get a 3% raise next week, but it will be offset by mandatory unpaid time off that would basically negate the pay increase for two years. Additional raises will take effect in 2027. That’s similar to the terms of a deal Newsom made last week with the union representing state prison guards.

“The package includes two pay raises and an immediate halt to the four-day return-to-office order for our members. In this budget environment, those are important achievements,” union executive director Ted Toppin said in a written statement.

Governors often grant similar perks to different labor organizations, and that history suggests many other state workers could get a one-year reprieve from the full return-to-office mandate.

Newsom embraced telework policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and unions negotiated work-from-home stipends for public employees. Many of them felt they were as productive as ever, and they were happy to avoid expensive transportation and parking costs.

Newsom brought public employees back to the office twice a week last year, and ordered a bigger move to four-days-a-week in May.

As of May, about 108,000 state employees worked from home at least one day a week, the state human resources director told lawmakers at a recent hearing.

The engineers union was one of several that contested Newsom’s mandate, including filing a lawsuit against the governor in Sacramento Superior Court. The union agreed to drop the lawsuit in its new agreement with Newsom.

Lawmakers have taken unions’ side, writing a letter earlier this month that urged Newsom to push back the mandate and grilling Newsom’s representatives in May over what they considered to be thin details on what the change would cost and how it would be implemented.

“This is pretty bewildering,” Democratic Assemblyman Matt Haney of San Francisco said at the May hearing. “So is this, is this supposed to go into effect for everyone on July 1st and that everybody would be expected to come back four days on that day?”

Contracts for five more public employee unions are scheduled to expire next week. The largest labor organization in state government, Service Employees International Union Local 1000, announced that it filed a legal challenge over the return to office mandate last week. It represents about 100,000 workers.

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This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

By ADAM ASHTON/CalMatters
CalMatters