This California agency reimburses employees’ work-from-home expenses. Will others follow?

Covered California will reimburse its employees’ work-from-home expenses, making it one of the first state offices to commit to doing so seven months into the coronavirus outbreak.

The office, which helps people sign up for health insurance, will reimburse employees for up to $74 per month, according to an email sent to employees this week.

The change raises the question whether other departments will follow suit.

Just two other departments so far have been reimbursing employees’ claims for similar expenses — the departments of Fish and Game and Industrial Relations, said Controller’s Office spokeswoman Jennifer Hanson. The office oversees CalATERS, the state’s reimbursement system for travel and other expense claims.

Reimbursement policies, and telework rules in general, fall to each state department, said Government Operations Agency spokesman Jacob Roper.

The decentralized approach means some departments issue laptops and cell phones while others do not provide that equipment.

The issue likely will remain relevant under direction from Gov. Gavin Newsom in his May budget proposal to make telework a permanent and more accessible part of state employment.

In June, Newsom issued guidance saying 75% of employees who can telework should keep working from home as the state continues to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The administration did not specify how departments should manage expenses.

At Covered California, which employees about 1,200 people as a part of the Department of Public Health, employees may submit expenses back to March, for a total of up to $518, according to the staff email.

“We are glad to be able to provide thanks in the form of reimbursement for some of the direct costs you’ve incurred,” Executive Director Peter Lee said in the email.

Work-related expenses were among the most common concerns raised in a Sacramento Bee survey of state workers conducted in July.

Workers objected to paying phone and internet bills for work and for having to pay for things like Zoom accounts and electricity bills that have been driven up by daytime air conditioning. Some noted they were covering the expenses even while working at reduced pay under the state’s furlough-like personal leave program.

California has decades-old laws on the books directing state departments to keep telework policies, but many scrambled in the first weeks and months of the pandemic to prepare policies and equipment that would enable employees to telework.

A spokesman for SEIU Local 1000, which represents nearly 100,000 state workers, many of whom work in administrative office positions, did not respond to a question about whether the union has pursued expense reimbursements for state workers who are working from home.