Return to office: Newsom orders California state workers back four days a week

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Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed an executive order mandating that all state agencies and departments that continue to offer remote work require a minimum of four in-person days per work week starting on July 1. Exceptions may be offered on a case-by-case basis.

“In-person work makes us all stronger — period,” he said in a statement. “When we work together, collaboration improves, innovation thrives, and accountability increases. That means better service, better solutions, and better results for Californians, while still allowing flexibility.”

The order is likely to inflame tensions between the governor and labor unions representing public employees, which have fought back against previous efforts to limit telework for the state workforce. About 95,000 employees continue to work remotely or in a hybrid capacity, according to the governor’s office.

Newsom already called workers back to the office at least two days per week last April, citing enhanced efficiency, mentorship and supervision from in-person work.

His new order argues that those benefits have been undermined by employees’ schedules not being aligned and also notes that “several leading private sector employers have recently increased in-person work requirements.” But the governor’s office refused to answer a question about why Newsom was moving now to bring state workers back to the office most days.

Legal challenges to return-to-office orders are ongoing and almost certainly will not end with Newsom’s latest mandate. An arbitration decision last year involving CASE, the union representing state attorneys, bolstered California’s authority to compel employees back to work in person, but the union appealed and other cases continue.

Timothy O’Connor, the president of CASE, said Newsom was overlooking the effectiveness of remote work, which proponents believe boosts employees’ productivity and well-being while saving money for the state.

“We think this is just sudden, comes out of nowhere, and it’s a misguided mandate that really ignores the benefits of telework,” O’Connor said in an interview. “This is a very harsh order.”

But the governor has cast it as an issue of fairness for the entire state workforce of more than 224,000 people. More than half continued to report to work in person every day throughout the pandemic and more have since returned to the office, according to his order, including law enforcement officers, health care providers, highway maintenance workers and janitorial staff.

Amid mass firings in the federal government, Newsom’s order also includes a provision to streamline hiring of former federal employees in key roles such as firefighting, weather forecasting, forest management, mental health and the sciences.