Summary
California’s Professional Engineers in California Government is pushing legislation aimed at making remote work a lasting option for many state employees as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s upcoming office-return requirements approach the July 1 deadline. The effort comes as state agencies try to adjust workplace policies for thousands of engineers and other workers covered by existing bargaining agreements while Newsom’s order tightens in-person expectations.
The proposed bill, authored by Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Milpitas Democrat, would direct state agencies to offer work-from-home options “to the fullest extent possible” and to provide written explanations when agencies require employees to work in person. The union said it represents more than 15,000 state engineers, whose jobs include work for Caltrans and environmental agencies, and it described the measure as a way to lock in the flexibility agencies used more widely during the COVID-19 era.
Lee’s bill would also require the state to establish a dashboard to track annual savings produced by remote work. The Department of General Services previously published similar information before ending the practice in 2024, according to the union and the bill’s background described through reporting.
The push is timed to Newsom’s mandate that most state employees be in the office four days a week, with the implementation for most employees delayed until this July after earlier agreements reached with multiple unions. The engineers union’s goal, union leadership said, is not to nullify Newsom’s order but to preserve what it views as the benefits of telework while the state implements the stricter attendance requirements.
Union leaders pointed to operational and cost concerns tied to the transition back to offices. Reporting cited that some agencies were ill-equipped to accommodate Newsom’s directive, including a lack of thousands of workstations before the mandate, and it noted that a state auditor’s report released last year estimated that allowing state workers to work from home at least three days a week could save the state $225 million per year.
In a statement carried in the coverage, Lee said remote work benefits include “cost savings and environmental benefits” and argued that the proposal would also improve transparency about state agencies’ telework policies. Ted Toppin, the union’s executive director, said the intent was to establish a state policy for flexible telework that serves state government, taxpayers and the state employees themselves, and he said the effort’s framing centers on shared goals including saving money, protecting the environment, cutting traffic, and recruiting and training staff.
Reporting also described how remote work became widely adopted across state agencies during the pandemic, with the Department of General Services estimating that by 2024 half of state workers were eligible for remote work and that 74% of those workers preferred telework. The following year, Newsom angered some employees by calling for them to return to office at least two days a week, and later signed a more extensive requirement raising in-office days to at least four for most workers.
The conflict is unfolding alongside different approaches to telework across California state government, as some agencies already require employees to be in the office at least three days a week and as the Legislature for the most part requires staff to be in the Capitol. The engineers union’s legislative push adds another layer to ongoing bargaining over workplace rules for state employees as the July deadline nears.
The union also has a history of wins at the bargaining table, including provisions that have increased pay for longtime employees. Records maintained by CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database described contributions of $3.5 million to state lawmakers between 2015 and 2024, with the largest spending in 2016 and 2024 tied to lawmakers debating measures affecting transportation funding and projects, according to the same reporting.