SACRAMENTO, Calif. — State employees are set to return to the office in a couple months after a directive from the governor's office, but not all are on board with the plan. Some unions are pushing back.
"We are going to fight it. We're going to fight and defend our membership to the best of our ability," said Bill Hall, board chair for SEIU Local 1000.
SEIU Local 1000 represents more than 90,000 state workers and is the largest union for state employees.
The directive calls on state workers to come to the office at least two days a week by mid June, with some exceptions.
An April memo from Cabinet Secretary Ann Patterson said in-person work provides better collaboration, communication and accountability. She added that nearly four years have passed since the pandemic, which prompted work from home, and that the state is in a different place now.
However, Hall said this change brings up a number of problems.
"It's both a financial strain and a lifestyle change," he said. "For a lot of people, childcare has become a major issue, then there's the whole commute into the office."
Hall said some members live far away and took jobs because they were remote at the time.
CASE, a union representing 4500 state-employed legal professionals and attorneys, is also fighting the change to hybrid work.
A majority of their membership currently works from home.
CASE President Tim O'Connor said most of their members are not happy about the move back to the office.
"There hasn't been a good rationale," he said. "What happened during the pandemic is... proved that we could accomplish our work in a virtual setting," O'Connor said.
They plan to fight the directive from the governor to keep remote working in place and more flexibility for their members.
The directive calls for agency leaders to put the hybrid model in place by June 17. O'Connor said the consequences of someone refusing to come back to the office are unclear right now.
ABC10 reached out to the governor's office about the push back and the potential consequences. They referred ABC10 to CalHR and said "the administration’s April 10 memo speaks for itself."
Hall said his message to the governor's office is this: "Give us a seat at the table and let's figure out how to approach this sensibly."
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