Governor Gavin Newsom has enacted an executive order that requires all state agencies and departments offering remote work to enforce a new policy: a minimum of four in-person workdays each week, starting on July 1. Exceptions to this rule might be granted on individual bases.
“In-person work makes us all stronger — period,” Newsom stated, emphasizing the positive impacts on collaboration, innovation, and accountability when coworkers are physically present. This, he believes, translates to improved services, solutions, and results for Californians, while retaining some flexibility.
This new directive is anticipated to stir controversy among labor unions representing public employees, groups that have already resisted previous attempts to reduce telework for the state’s workforce. As per the governor’s office, there are still about 95,000 employees who work remotely or in hybrid setups.
Last April, Newsom had already asked workers to return to the office for at least two days a week, citing that in-person work enhances efficiency, mentorship, and supervision.
The recent order suggests that the advantages of in-person work are compromised by misaligned employee schedules. Additionally, it acknowledges that numerous prominent private sector employers have heightened their requirements for in-office presence. However, when queried about the timing of this mandate, the governor’s office withheld further comments.
Ongoing legal disputes concerning return-to-office mandates are not expected to conclude with Newsom’s latest directive. A prior arbitration decision involving CASE, the union for state attorneys, supported California’s authority to mandate in-person work, yet the union has appealed, and other legal challenges persist.
Timothy O’Connor, president of CASE, has critiqued Newsom’s order as dismissing the merits of remote work. Advocates argue that telework enhances productivity and staff well-being while being cost-effective 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 remarked in an interview, labeling the move a “very harsh order.”
Nonetheless, the governor has framed this as a fairness issue for the entire state’s workforce, which exceeds 224,000 employees. Many have continued to work on-site daily throughout the pandemic and have returned to the office since then, such as law enforcement officers, healthcare providers, highway maintenance personnel, and janitorial staff.
In light of significant terminations within the federal government, the order also includes a measure to expedite hiring prior federal employees for crucial positions in areas like firefighting, weather forecasting, forest management, mental health, and scientific fields.
