A state workers’ union is trying to stop Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandate that state employees work in person on the supposed grounds that this will somehow be bad for the environment.
Newsom issued a mandate in May — more than six years after the COVID-19 outbreak — ordering state employees to work in-person for a minimum of four days per week.
State employee union California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE) issued letters on May 27 to state agencies, claiming that Newsom’s return-to-work order did not use the policiesset in place by a more than five-decade-old environmental law.
The union’s letters went to over 100 state agencies, according to the Sacramento Bee.
CASE claims in one of its letters that the return-to-office order will “require hundreds of thousands of additional monthly commutes by state workers, creating hundreds of thousands of new car trips and thousands of tons of additional air pollution from automobile tailpipes.”
“CASE’s objective here is to ensure that telework decisions are made thoughtfully and transparently rather than through blanket mandates that undermine California’s climate goals,” the letter states.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the law CASE cited, requires that state and local agencies evaluate the significant environmental impacts of proposed projects and take all measures to reduce or eliminate those impacts, according to the California Attorney General’s website. The CEQA was signed into law by then-governor Ronald Reagan in 1970.
CEQA is known for postponing the construction of new homes, according to the outlet. CASE, however, argued that the environmental consequences of the return-to-work policy must be reviewed under the longstanding environmental legislation.
CASE threatened to sue if the CEQA review does not take place, according to Reason Magazine.
This environmental law has often been used to attempt to block policies and projects disliked in California since the lawsuits which come from it are slow to be resolved, according to the outlet. For example, petitioners in Berkley used CEQA to delay the University of California from building more student housing since the school had not evaluated the potential noise pollution the potential residents of the new building would cause.
CASE’s letter pushes for agencies to evaluate if it’s really necessary for all state employees to work in-person. This is not the first attempt at stopping Newsom’s return-to-work order, according to the Sacramento Bee. There have been multiple other attempts to end Newsom’s return-to-work order by unions, labor groups, and government employees.
In 2025, anonymous government employees paid for billboards which warned of increased traffic in California due to the mandate, the outlet reported. Labor groups also sued the state, claiming the return-to-work order breached California labor laws.
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