Our Union team met and conferred recently with DOR management twice (November 7 & December 5, 2025) about their plans to implement return-to-office guidance requiring employees to work in-office three days a week. The assigned CalHR negotiator stated multiple times on behalf of management, “We’re not here to negotiate the decision but to negotiate impact.”
In the two meetings, the department didn’t provide any data to justify this RTO requirement. In the second meeting, they even claimed that the data had been “deleted,” which makes it impossible for us to evaluate the decision or propose ways to reduce the impact on workers.
This information is essential for SEIU to develop fair proposals, and the State’s refusal to produce it raises real concerns about how this decision was made.
What We Proposed and What DOR Rejected
- In the first meeting proposal on November 7, 2025, we requested flexibility for staff who commute 50+ miles to their assigned work locations. DOR rejected this proposal.
- In the second meeting on December 5, 2025, the union requested the data behind management’s RTO decision and asked DOR to delay the new schedule until July 2026. DOR rejected both requests.
When an agency refuses transparency, it’s always the workers who pay the price. That’s why we’re escalating our efforts to obtain the data and hold management accountable.
What Comes Next
We will now pursue a more formal process to obtain the information DOR is withholding, to make sure that any RTO decisions were made responsibly and not arbitrarily.
We want to thank every member who called, emailed, and signed on to the letter to the Regional Director. Your actions matter, and they strengthen our position at the table!
The fight isn’t over. We will continue organizing and escalating as needed, and we encourage all Unit 1and Unit 4 members to stay engaged as we head into the 2026 Contract Campaign.