Nearly 100,000 California state workers will have their return-to-office mandate delayed by a year, under a new agreement between the state and SEIU Local 1000 announced on Sunday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year mandated that all state workers must return to the office at least four days a week beginning on July 1, 2025. State employees have only been required to be in-office two days a week.
The new agreement applies only to state employees represented by SEIU Local 100, which is the state’s largest labor union, and pauses Newsom’s return-to-office order for them until July 1, 2026.
Additionally, the agreement protects a 3% raise that was also set to kick in this July 1, SEIU Local 1000 said.
The union also noted that, in an effort to meet California’s “demand for cost savings,” a 3% personal leave program would be implemented from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2027. This would mean that take-home pay would be reduced by 3% but state employees would be granted five hours of personal leave each month “that can be used just like vacation or annual leave, and can also be cashed out,” the labor union said.
During those two years, no additional personal leave programs or furloughs can be adopted.
Similar deals were announced between the state and unions representing engineers and state prison guards.
