California union alleges state withheld work-from-home stipends for hundreds of employees

State employees at the California agency that investigates wage theft say their employer is failing to pay them their full wages, according to a labor complaint filed by the union that represents California state attorneys and administrative judges.

A group of 527 legal professionals allege that the Department of Industrial Relations failed to pay their telework stipends of $25 or $50 since October 2021 and now owes them at least $300,000.

The monthly payments were part of a contractual agreement signed in September 2021 between the state and the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment, known as CASE, which represents the workers.

“It’s disrespectful to our members at DIR,” said CASE President Tim O’Connor. “I think it’s ironic that in their workplace, they’re treated so poorly when so much of their job is to make sure that other employers maintain a fair and just workplace.”

The complaint, filed Wednesday through DIR’s wage theft portal, argues that each affected worker should receive $800 in overdue pay if they worked primarily from home or $400 if they mainly worked from the office.

Spokespeople for DIR say the department is working with the State Controller’s Office to expedite payments from 2021. The department says it started tracking telework arrangements last July and employees were instructed to upload telework agreements by mid-August last year. According to DIR’s records, only about 150 employees across all bargaining units were due telework stipends from Oct. 1, 2021.

“DIR received 2,322 telework agreements between July and December of 2022, and many of them were processed for payment without delay,” a DIR spokesperson wrote in a Feb. 3 email to the Bee. “Approximately 850 agreements had errors or required clarification, 425 of which have been resolved and submitted to SCO for payment.”

DIR acknowledged receiving CASE’s wage claim on Feb. 1 but said the filing did not list any payment amounts.

“The Labor Commissioner’s Office is reviewing it,” the department wrote.

CASE met with state officials many times to try and resolve the issue, O’Connor said, but they never received a clear answer about why members weren’t receiving their stipends. The wage complaint was a last resort option.

“We gave them every opportunity,” he said, “and I feel like we just got the runaround of, ‘We’re looking into it, we don’t know, we don’t have a date.’”

O’Connor hopes DIR will acknowledge its mistake and pay members their money without having to take the case to court. CASE members work hard. He criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom, an avid supporter of telework, for not stepping in to help CASE workers.

“The buck should stop with the governor,” O’Connor said. “Is he not paying attention to this? Is it not important to him?”

This story was originally published February 2, 2023 at 10:50 AM.