{"id":191113,"date":"2026-02-24T07:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191113\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T07:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:07:08","slug":"union-backed-bill-would-require-telework-options-for-california-state-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191113\/","title":{"rendered":"Union-backed bill would require telework options for California state workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

On any given day before the pandemic, hundreds of workers would walk the sidewalks circling the State Capitol on their lunch breaks. But it isn\u2019t as busy in the downtown Capitol corridor as it used to be.<\/p>\n

A big part of that is state workers are still working remotely a few days a week. Sacramento County is home to California\u2019s largest concentration of state employees \u2013 just under 90,000 workers.<\/p>\n

Gina Garcia-Smith is one of them. She is a former school teacher and now works as a program consultant for the California Department of Education located in downtown Sacramento. Garcia-Smith said the option to work from home has allowed her more flexibility, especially after becoming a new parent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m able to do my job remotely for three days out of the week, that really has improved my quality of life and the amount of time I’m able to spend with my daughter,\u201d Garcia-Smith said. \u201cI’m not, you know, stuck in traffic. I’m able to be present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom has ordered most state employees to return to the office four days a week starting July 1, 2026, up from a required twice per week. The mandate received pushback from state workers, including Garcia-Smith, who said the ability to telework is a big draw for state jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we really want to attract and retain quality state workers, it’s really important to be able to provide some incentive because clearly pay is not the incentive that’s being provided,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Garcia-Smith\u2019s union, SEIU Local 1000 is backing a bill<\/a> this year that would require state agencies to continue offering telework. Other unions representing state workers also support the measure, including CAPS UAW Local 1115, AFSCME 2620, CASE, and PECG.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democratic Assemblymember Alex Lee of Milpitas authored the legislation. His district encompasses Silicon Valley where private-sector telework is typical. Lee argued state workers should continue to benefit from that same opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has allowed for people to move further away from Sacramento in places that are more affordable, close to their family networks, instead of all being concentrated in one area. And this has a lot of great potential benefits for the workers themselves,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

A 2025 State Auditor report<\/a> estimated that continued telework for state employees would save California around $225 million a year in real estate and facility costs. Supporters of remote work argue the state should consider that projected savings especially as it faces a bleak budget outlook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If the legislature approves the bill, Newsom would get the final say. He seemed to dismiss the proposal when asked about it at a recent press conference in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gotta get these downtowns moving again. Get a sense of community and place,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

Newsom ordered state employees back to the office four days a week last year, but his administration backtracked following pushback from labor<\/a>. Unions representing state employees were able to successfully negotiate a delay to this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m for getting us back, so as you know I\u2019ve supported that and I believe we\u2019re on track to do that July 1st,\u201d Newsom added.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cesar Jimenez opened Fire and Crisp on K. Street last year. February 18, 2026.Laura Fitzgerald\/CapRadio<\/p>\n

\nDowntown business owners are mixed on the mandate<\/p>\n

Just a few blocks over from the Capitol is K street. The light rail runs down the middle of this once vibrant stretch of restaurants and shops. But the area\u2019s struggled economically since the pandemic when telework took off.<\/p>\n

Ross Rojek co-owns Capital Books. He said the shop is doing fine business-wise. And on top of that, he says he isn\u2019t convinced a return-to-office mandate for state workers will fix the complex issues facing downtown Sacramento, like homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know [that] the forcing people to come back in order to make downtown alive again is going to work. You know, you’re just going to piss off more people,\u201d Rojek said.<\/p>\n

But for restaurants, it\u2019s a different story.<\/p>\n

Cesar Jimenez owns a chicken sandwich spot, Fire and Crisp. He opened his doors about a year ago and said he picked this spot because he expected more workers to return downtown.<\/p>\n

Jimenez believes a return to office mandate would likely be good for business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be definitely super helpful to have that frequent lunch rush,\u201d Jimenez said.<\/p>\n

However, that won\u2019t happen without a fight from state worker unions. SEIU Local 1000 said telework will be a big factor for their contract negotiations with the state this year, especially if legislation isn\u2019t successful.<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. \u00a0As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.<\/p>\n


\n Donate Today \u200a<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On any given day before the pandemic, hundreds of workers would walk the sidewalks circling the State Capitol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[701,702,121,123,122,89621],"class_list":{"0":"post-191113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-capital-public-radio","9":"tag-cpr","10":"tag-sacramento","11":"tag-sacramento-headlines","12":"tag-sacramento-news","13":"tag-union-backed-bill-would-require-telework-options-for-california-state-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}