CalPERS to keep its telework policy after Gavin Newsom orders return to office
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System exerted its autonomy from Gov. Gavin Newsom Friday by informing its workers that the agency will maintain its policy that allows two days of remote work a week. Starting this summer, state employees in other departments will be expected to work in person four out of five days.
In 2022, the state’s largest public pension fund directed its employees working from home during the pandemic to return to offices three days a week. This week, CalPERS said that changing that policy now would be an unnecessary disruption.
CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost told employees in a virtual town hall Friday that the department will maintain its current “three-two” policy that allows team members to work remotely 40% of the week.
Frost’s news came at the end of a week that began with a surprise announcement from Newsom that departments under his jurisdiction should update telework policies to require public employees to work from offices four days a week.
Frost told CalPERS employees that the department has “worked hard to establish clear and consistent performance procedures to ensure our members receive the customer service they expect,” said CalPERS spokesperson John Myers. As of December, the agency had 2,500 employees who are able to work remotely, according to state data.
“Those procedures show that the CalPERS hybrid policy works and that changes at this point could be needlessly disruptive,” he said.
In a statement, the governor’s office encouraged all state agencies — including those not under Newsom’s authority — to comply with the executive order and develop policies consistent with the four-day directive to achieve the benefits of in-person work.
While CalPERS is part of the executive branch, the public pension fund has a quasi-independence from the governor’s authority.
A self-funded government entity, CalPERS isn’t a traditional cabinet agency, Myers explained. The agency is under the management of a CEO and follows broad policies established by the CalPERS board of administration.
Other state agencies, such as the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, are under the authority of constitutional officers, which includes Attorney General Rob Bonta and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond. Those officers have the authority to establish their own telework policies.
Since Newsom called employees to return more fully to state offices, public servants have blasted the governor’s decision as unnecessary and hostile to workers.
Additionally, unions have filed challenges to the return-to-office mandate with the public labor board in an effort to overturn the directive.
