CA STATE UNIONS PISSED THAT THEIR MEMBERS MAY ACTUALLY HAVE TO RETURN TO WORK

by Bob Walsh

Depending on what agency CA state civil service workers are now being told they have to get their happy asses back to the actual work site. The unions representing those employees are expressing their unhappiness.

CalPERS employees are now being required to put in three days per week in the actual office.  The Dept. of Industrial Relations and some CalTrans offices will be requiring two or three days per week in the actual office.  The State Water Project is shooting for May to get people back in the office.  The Air Resources Board and State Water Project are also moving in that direction.

The unions are calling these new mandates rigid, arbitrary and unnecessary.  They point out that for many state jobs telework has turned out just fine. The employer asserts that it is hard to monitor employee work if they are not actually there.  Also that some tasks are much better done in person, and that "office culture" interpersonal relationships and collaboration are achieved much more fully and effectively in an office setting.

The unions also point out that, early on in the pandemic, God-Emperor Gavin Newsom decreed that the state would offer permanent telework options for many employees to cut down on office space requirements and cut down on fuel consumption, traffic problems and other such horrible things. 

The unions are also demanding that the state increase telework stipends to $100 per month.  (I didn't know people were getting paid extra to not come to work.)

This difference of opinion will no doubt get more unpleasant and louder as time goes by.