Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Telework Trailer Bill topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DOF proposes moving telework statute to CalHR; senators and analysts seek policy committee review
Summary
The administration proposes trailer-bill language moving the statewide telework statute from the Department of General Services to CalHR and modernizing terms; lawmakers and analysts urged policy committee review and raised questions about residency and full-remote work implications.
The May revision includes trailer bill language to move the statewide telework statute (originally written in 1995) from the Department of General Services into the CalHR sections of the Government Code, update terminology from "telecommuting" to "telework," and align the statute with current practice, officials said. The revision does not itself mandate a specific telework policy, administration witnesses said.
Noelle Fakadji and Grace Henry of the Department of Finance presented the trailer bill proposal and said the DGS unit that previously administered parts of the program sunset last year; the proposal moves oversight to CalHR where personnel administration is already managed.
Director Irene Ortega of CalHR told the committee the proposal is intended to consolidate the statute under CalHR’s purview and is not intended to bar employees who live out of state from telework arrangements; she said much telework practice is already managed by departments. Nick Schroeder, an LAO analyst, suggested the language appeared to make substantive policy changes and recommended the statute be considered in policy committee hearings rather than solely in the budget process.
Committee members asked whether the trailer bill would take effect immediately if adopted in the budget and asked for clarifications about whether the draft language allows fully remote employees and whether it would require teleworkers to reside in California. CalHR said it would clarify and confirm the intended scope.
Why it matters: Changes to the statewide telework statute affect state employee work arrangements, labor relations and implementation of return-to-office policies. Senators said the policy has operational, fiscal and employee-relations consequences that merit full review.
What’s next: CalHR agreed to provide clarifications to the committee and the LAO; the committee signaled interest in sending substantive policy changes through the normal policy committee process rather than resolving them exclusively via trailer-bill budget language.
