State workers union targets Caltrans over return-to-office policy

The formal protests to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office order expanded last week after a union filed an unfair labor practice against the California Department of Transportation for failing to discuss the impact of the policy with the labor group.

The new filing comes a month after the California labor relations board found the Governor’s Office may have violated the law by its failure to meet and confer with labor groups before imposing the new telework rule.

The complaint, filed by the Professional Engineers in California Government, centers around the department’s adopting of the four-day in office policy without alerting or discussing its impacts on employees with the union that represents them. The complaint asserts that Caltrans’ “unilateral change was unlawful” because the department denied the union’s right to represent the workers it represents.

PECG asked the employment board to rescind Caltrans’ new telework policy.

In April, Caltrans sent a letter to employees saying the department would not offer exemptions to the return-to-office directive to workers who live 50 miles or more from their offices, which the California Department of Human Resources previously recommended.

Shortly after, a PECG representative asked department officials why Caltrans was disregarding CalHR’s suggestions.

“We are not ignoring the guidance given by CalHR,” Kevin Perez, who works in the Caltrans Labor Relations Office, said in an email, according to the union’s complaint. “We have considered what is best for the department and at this time, we feel that allowing a 50 mile exemption does not meet that threshold.”

Caltrans declined to comment on the union’s recent filing.

Last week, Caltrans employees protested outside the department over what they believed was an overly strict interpretation of the governor’s order.

PECG has been at the forefront of the telework fight before the employment board. Other unions have filed challenges to the executive order, but the engineers’ labor group was the first to secure a complaint against the Governor’s Office. While Newsom’s administration has rejected the labor board’s findings, it will join the union in a meeting with the employment board next week in an attempt to settle the dispute.

Earlier this month, PERB issued a similar complaint against the Governor’s Office in response to an unfair labor practice filed by the largest public union, Service Employees International Union Local 1000.

“There is still time for Caltrans and the Administration to get this right,” said PECG’s executive director Ted Toppin. “And PECG is happy to work with them to do so because a mandatory four-days in office policy will make government less responsive and more expensive, add to traffic congestion and air pollution, and strain the state’s resources just to find office space for the returning workforce.”

In communications with members, the union said it plans to file similar challenges against other departments that plan to carry out the governor’s “unlawful executive order.”