California state workers say Gavin Newsom’s proposal to halt raises is ‘untenable’
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to freeze state workers’ salaries came at a time when much of California’s workforce already felt discouraged by the administration.
“All of these things make it untenable,” Shelby Goss, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Transportation, said outside the department’s headquarters where she and about 50 others had gathered to, originally, protest an preceding grievance: Newsom’s return-to-office order.
The additional sting came just over two months after the governor told public employees that the state would transition to in-person work four days a week by July.
On Wednesday, Newsom released a budget proposal to suspend public employees’ pay increases in the upcoming fiscal year. The budget language invited bargaining units to negotiate with the administration over the $767-million savings target, but also made it clear the state would impose reductions in the coming months — whether an agreement was reached or not.
“Gov. Newsom is suggesting that our incomes are what’s negotiable when it comes to balancing the state budget,” Goss said to a crowd of booing workers.
The governor aims to use the payroll freezes as part of the “budget solution” to address California’s deficit, which ballooned to an estimated $12 billion in recent months. The governor largely blamed actions by the Trump administration for the state’s financial problems.
The return-to-office order has spurred a sustained protest movement, persuaded public employees to shell out thousands of dollars for an anti-Newsom billboard and prompted unions to challenge the policy through the state’s labor relations board.
The governor inflamed that anger, which had lost some momentum since March, when he proposed freezing salaries.
“It always seems these agreements with our bosses hold no water, so why bother making them?” said John Downs, the director-at-large for the California Association of Professional Scientists and an ecologist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The state scientist union went four years without a contract due to contentious negotiations. Now that the governor plans to ask unions to pause pay raises secured during bargaining, Downs said it feels like those agreements aren’t “worth the paper they’re printed on.”
Asking for fairness
One lingering sore spot around remote work is the disparity between different state workers.
Some employees, like janitors and printers, never had the opportunity to work remotely. Others worked for departments that had generous telework policies and lax enforcement of those requirements.
Now that Newsom has upped the requirement to four days a week, those differences are becoming more apparent to public employees.
Last month, Caltrans announced that all employees would be expected to be in offices at least four days a week, even if they worked further than 50 miles from their assigned building. The policy ran against guidance issued by the California Department of Human Resources, which suggested those workers who live exceptionally far from their offices should be exempt from the new telework rules.
State workers rallying outside the headquarters Thursday questioned why Caltrans was so strictly enforcing the return-to-office directive.
Meanwhile, leaders of the state’s two largest public pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, declined to alter their current telework policies, which require fewer than four days in person, despite Newsom’s four-day mandate.
Don Antonowich, a scientist for the Department of Pesticide Regulation, lives about 85 miles northwest of his office in downtown Sacramento. He said he has to redo his telework agreement but has an understanding, from conversations with supervisors, that he will be able to keep working only two days a week in the office.
He doesn’t feel it is fair that Caltrans workers don’t have the same flexibility.
“There’s no logic to it, there’s no science that’s been put into this,” he said.
Asking for fairness, the state workers who gathered outside the Caltrans headquarters across from the Capitol delivered a petition, urging the department to reconsider allowing exceptions to the telework policy.
“Talk to us,” union leaders said before handing Caltrans spokesperson Edward Barrera a poster board-sized version of the petition and a list of the signees. Goss said more than 1,000 people signed the petition.
When asked, another Caltrans spokesperson said the letter sent to employees in April served as the response to the rally.
Space savings
The difference between departments highlights just how differently state workers across Sacramento may experience the shift back to in-person work.
It’s not clear if agencies will have enough space to accommodate the entire workforce since the pandemic, when the state hoped to reduce the amount of office space needed.
While the total square footage of office space owned and leased by the Department of General Services has increased, many state workers question whether there are enough desks for all their colleagues to be in offices in July.
“Multiple districts within Caltrans have downsized their space in recent years while increasing their staff, which was an option because of telework,” Goss told the crowd Thursday. “This means the state will have to enter costly leases.”
How much, if any, office space that state agencies need is unclear.
The Sacramento Bee filed a public records request with DGS for documents agencies were required to submit in response to Newsom’s return-to-work order outlining their plans to accommodate more in-person workers.
But the general services agency declined to provide the records to The Bee. A spokesperson argued that releasing them would “reveal specific details relating to the state’s overall need for office space” which would “compromise the state’s bargaining position” when it comes to leases.
Disclosing the records, the spokesperson added, did not outweigh the public interest in keeping them confidential.
Unions alternatively proposed a solution to both the budget issue and return-to-office conflict.
Instead of calling bringing employees back into crowded offices, the administration should be using telework as a way to close the budget shortfall, said Service Employees International Union Local 1000, in a Thursday statement.
“The state’s own data shows that telework saves millions,” the state’s largest public union, said. “Instead of cutting our pay, the state should expand smart cost-saving solutions like telework.”
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California state workers say Gavin Newsom’s proposal to halt raises is ‘untenable’."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect spelling of Shelby Goss’ name. It has been corrected.
