The union representing California state lawyers has filed about 15 Public Employment Relations Board charges since July, claiming state departments aren’t properly negotiating telework policies.
Depending on the department and each lawyer’s role, the union says attorneys need different accommodations, including those to protect confidential information, and have the right to negotiate those terms.
“They’re (the state) putting our members in a position where they are putting their bar license at risk by committing unethical conduct of disclosing confidential client information to people that shouldn’t hear it,” said Patrick Whalen, the union’s general counsel.
These complaints stem from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office mandate that went into effect July 1, requiring many state workers to return to the office four days a week. While many of California’s state lawyers work for the Attorney General’s Office, which isn’t part of the mandate, there are state agencies with lawyers of their own who are required to comply.
Some lawyers, according to the union, are being placed in cubicles where it’s hard to conceal confidential information, prompting the union to ask for a statewide telework policy similar to the Attorney General’s Office, where there isn’t a standard number of in-office days. It’s determined by division managers instead.
The union — California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE) — says these accommodations are...
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