California union pushes work-from-home bill as Newsom calls state employees back to the office

One of California’s larger public employee unions is pushing legislation to make remote work a permanent option for state workers 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 measure, authored by Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Milpitas Democrat, would require state agencies to offer work-from-home options “to the fullest extent possible” and provide written justifications when they require employees to work in person, according to a press release from the Professional Engineers in California Government. The union represents more than 15,000 state engineers who mostly work for Caltrans and in environmental agencies.

The bill would also require the state to establish a dashboard to document the annual savings as a result of remote work. The Department of General Services, which manages contracts and real estate for the state government, published that information until ending the practice in 2024.

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

State agencies widely adopted remote work policies that allowed state employees to save on transportation costs and live where they preferred during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2024, half of the state workers were eligible for remote work, and 74% of those workers preferred telework, according to the Department of General Services’ estimate at the time.

But that year, Newsom angered thousands of state employees by calling them back to office at least two days a week. He signed a more extensive mandate last year requiring most state workers in office at least four days a week, but delayed the implementation for most until this July — the result of bargaining with several unions including the engineers union. 

State agencies, however, were ill-equipped to accommodate the order. Many lacked thousands of workstations ahead of Newsom’s mandate, according to a recent report in The Sacramento Bee. And remote work is a money saver: Allowing state workers to work from home at least three days a week could save the state $225 million a year, according to a state auditor’s report released last year. 

“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 on state agencies’ telework policies.

The goal of the bill is not to nullify Newsom’s order, Toppin said. Rather, it’s to remind policymakers of the benefits telework can bring, he said.

“Saving money, protecting the environment, cutting traffic, recruiting and training staff. Those are shared goals of all Californians,” Toppin said.

The engineers union has a reputation for wins at the bargaining table, including gaining seniority perks that boosted pay for longtime employees. Records maintained by CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database show it gave $3.5 million to state lawmakers between 2015 and 2024. The highest spending came in 2016 when the union gave $422,000 to lawmakers as they debated what became a gas tax increase that locked in funding for transportation projects, and in 2024 when the union contributed $497,000 to legislators.  

The give-and-take over bringing state workers into the office is playing out as public agencies take different approaches to remote work since 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 mandates that staff be in the Capitol. 

Separately,  Newsom last year signed a law that extended telework options for local officials, researchers and members of neighborhood councils and advisory groups.