By admin 
Even though Samantha Arens is on maternity leave, she still made the trek to the Capitol Annex Swing Space Tuesday — with her four-month-old daughter June in tow — to urge California lawmakers to support a bill that aims to protect state workers’ ability to telework.
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Arens, a mother and senior attorney at the California Energy Commission, said that if Gov. Gavin Newsom’s four-day, in-office requirement goes into effect next week, “that’s going to throw a nuclear bomb” into her family’s schedule.
“There’s this delicate balance of having to pick up your kids at daycare and school within a very short time frame,” Arens said outside a committee hearing on Tuesday morning. “I don’t know how I am going to get supper on the table and kids picked up from school and commute to and from the office.”
Dozens of Arens’ fellow state employees joined her to voice support for an Assembly bill that is posed to make it out of the Legislature after clearing its second Senate committee on Tuesday. Assembly Bill 1729, authored by Assemblymember Alex Lee, D-San Jose, would require state departments to establish telework policies that articulate to employees why they are needed for in-person work.
The bill now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee before going to the full Senate. The measure has faced some minimal opposition from Republican lawmakers, but has generally been well received by the Democrat-led Legislature so far.
Before it becomes law, however, he bill faces a major hurdle: Newsom’s desk.
While the bill does not explicitly reverse the governor’s impending return-to-office order, it has the backing of state worker unions who have been fighting with Newsom over telework for more than two years. On the return-to-office order, Newsom recently reaffirmed: “We want to get it done.”
Newsom has said that collaboration and building the public’s trust in government are key motivations for calling workers back to offices four days a week starting July 1.
Local leaders support AB 1729
Prior to this week’s hearing, several local leaders, whose constituents would be impacted by the return-to-office order, wrote letters in support of the measure.
Sacramento City Councilmembers Mai Vang and Phil Pluckebaum both wrote to Senate Majority Leader Angelique Ashby earlier this month to encourage the Sacramento Democrat to vote yes on AB 1729. Ashby previously said, when the bill was in the Assembly, that she was not yet taking a stance on the measure.
“Many of those employees are my neighbors — state workers raising kids, caring for parents, and stitching together long days that too often begin and end with a commute they cannot afford in time or money. Decisions about telework shape household budgets, family time, and quality of life across our entire region,” Vang said in a letter to Ashby.
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It appears Vang, Pluckebaum and others’ advocacy worked. Ashby and 12 other senators approved the measure on Tuesday.
In a statement, Ashby said that remote work has an “important role in our society,” and it was crucial to find the right balance of empowering workers to do their jobs from the most appropriate setting based on their responsibilities.
“We need not look to the past but instead work towards the opportunities that are right in front of us,” Ashby said. “Remote work has created employment opportunities for many of my constituents who otherwise would not be part of our workforce.”
RTO mandates disproportionately impact female workers
During Tuesday’s hearing, Senators heard from Leah Kennedy, a staff attorney with The Center for WorkLife Law, which is affiliated with the University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco.
“One-size-fits-all return-to-office mandates drive women from the workforce,” Kennedy said, while Arens and baby June listened from the audience.
Speaking in support of AB 1729, Kennedy noted that research has shown that female employees left their jobs at nearly three times the rate of their male colleagues following return-to-office mandates.
“This bill’s transparency provisions would require that restrictions on flexibility be grounded in documented operational need, not blanket policy,” Kennedy said. “Without it, California will lose women, caregivers and people with disabilities from public service.”
Lee noted that there was urgency to this piece of legislation given the return-to-office order is one week away. The assemblymember and many state workers are hoping for a last-minute delay, like the one Newsom put in place last year.
Referring to the governor, Lee said, “Hopefully he’ll see the light and change his mind again.”
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