A $2.1M office chair and permanent telework: Our top California state worker stories in 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to dominate the news in 2021, and California civil servants looked to The Sacramento Bee’s state worker for stories on the end of pay cuts, new vaccine rules and the ins and outs of telework.

Readers also made time for traditionally popular topics including pensions, prisons lawsuits and California’s latest bans on taxpayer-funded travel to certain states.

Below is our annual review of our most-read stories. A few are “subscriber exclusives,” reserved for those who support our work by subscribing to The Bee. If you don’t have a subscription, please consider signing up. We offer a special price for state workers.

Pay cuts

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature restored state employees’ pay with union-negotiated agreements this summer. Lawmakers had reduced state workers’ pay a year earlier, when budget projections showed the state could be looking at a historic deficit. Instead, California ended up with a huge surplus.

Most state employees received modest raises in the new agreements. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which gave more money than any other state union to help protect Newsom from a recall this year, secured unique $5,000 bonuses plus extra paid time off for its members.

Telework

California is making remote work a permanent option for state employees, but it’s taken longer than officials expected to plan for the state’s teleworking future.

The Department of General Services published a telework policy in October that urges state departments to embrace telework.

Several unions have reached agreements that offer $50-per-month stipends for employees who spend at least half their time working from home. One notable exception is SEIU Local 1000, the state’s largest union, which remains without a telework agreement.

Departments are figuring out how to overcome longstanding cultural norms tied to state offices and how to hold employees accountable for their work when they can’t see them in their chairs.

Vaccines

Vaccines became available for everyone in April. By August, Newsom required all state workers to show proof of vaccination or submit to regular COVID-19 testing. He imposed stricter rules for state employees working in health care settings.

Several state worker unions objected, including SEIU Local 1000, the correctional officers’ union, the International Union of Operating Engineers and Cal Fire Local 2881.

The unions won minor victories when the Human Resources Department agreed to negotiate details of the vaccine rules.

The Newsom administration took a different approach when it came to a federal judge’s September order that all state prison employees must get vaccinated. Newsom and the state corrections department joined the correctional officers’ union to fight the judge’s order in court. A federal appeals court blocked the vaccination order in November.

Prison officer deaths

Two officers who worked in a specialized unit at California State Prison, Sacramento, have died in the last 15 months, drawing attention to a culture of harassment and hazing within the unit.

Valentino Rodriguez, who was 30, died of a fentanyl overdose at his home in West Sacramento in October 2020. He left behind a record alleging mistreatment by other officers on his phone. His father has been pressing for answers as to why someone at the prison didn’t step in to help his son.

The FBI launched an investigation at the prison this year, focusing on allegations that officers helped coordinate the brutal stabbing of an inmate who was handcuffed to a chair in the prison.

Kevin Steele, 56, who was a sergeant in the unit, was found dead at a home in Missouri in August. Steele’s death was ruled a suicide. He had filed two whistleblower memos with department executives accusing prison officials of ignoring the mistreatment of Rodriguez, and he alleged a range of misconduct by officers. At the time of his death, Steele was serving as a confidential source for attorneys representing inmates in the prison.

SEIU Local 1000

Richard Louis Brown won an election to be president of SEIU Local 1000, unseating Yvonne Walker, who had held the seat for 13 years.

Brown campaigned on an unconventional campaign platform, promising to cut dues by half, secure a 21% pay increase and remove the union from politics.

He has clashed with some members of the union’s board of directors. The dispute became so pronounced that in October a group of about 33 board members held a meeting and voted to strip Brown of his powers. Brown has refused to acknowledge the board’s vote, and a power struggle between the two sides continues.

Pensions

CalPERS reported a 21% return on its investments for the fiscal year ending in June, tripling its target and improving the fund’s long-term funded status as it rode a stock market boom.

In a quirk, the record-high returns means some public employees will have to pay more for their pensions.

The big return coincided with a once-every-four-years review of the pension system’s investments undertaken by the system’s board of directors. That process concluded in November, with the board opting to add more risk to its portfolio in an effort to meet its annual return target.

$2.1 million office chair

California’s Employment Development Department agreed to settle a lawsuit over an office chair for $2.1 million in March.

A dispute leading to the lawsuit started when Laura Torres, an office assistant in San Francisco, requested a special $1,200 chair after a back surgery.

The department declined to buy it, and Torres alleged the department also refused to make other accommodations for a condition that caused her sometimes-excruciating back pain.

A jury ended up deciding in Torres’ favor, awarding her about $1 million in 2019 for past and future lost wages and emotional distress, and a judge ordered the department to pay $1.1 million in attorneys’ fees. The department challenged the jury’s award, but dropped the challenge this year.

CalPERS long-term care

Attorneys who sued CalPERS on behalf of people with a subset of CalPERS long-term care insurance policies reached a settlement with the pension fund over a big rate hike imposed in 2015 and 2016.

The $2.7 billion settlement gave policyholders the option to keep their plan and pay more or to get back the premiums they’ve paid over the years.

Meanwhile, another big price hike – 90% – is kicking in for people who are holding on to their policies.

Ohio travel ban

California banned state-funded travel to an 18th state this year, Ohio. The state triggered the travel ban when it approved a state law allowing doctors to decline medical services to people on moral or religious grounds.

California lawmakers passed a law in 2016 that requires the attorney general to prohibit state-funded travel to states that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and other states have made the list.

This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 5:25 AM.