ALRB staff urge board to preserve three-day telework, citing outreach and recruitment impacts

More than a dozen employees of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board told the board at its meeting that a three-day telework model is crucial to the agency’s ability to serve farmworkers across the state and to recruit and retain staff.

"We ask you to grant exceptions to simply maintain our current telework policy," said David Sandoval, an Attorney III with the ALRB, urging the board to use the discretion contained in Executive Order N-22-25. Sandoval cited the agency’s recent annual report and the range of outreach work the board’s staff conducts across California to argue the hybrid model supports productivity and public engagement.

Several other staff echoed that account. "We meet the workers where we are," said Abigail Goltz, a trainee at the ALRB, describing early-morning and late-night notice readings and weekend clinics that require staff flexibility. Goltz described the personal caregiving and travel burdens that make a rigid in-office mandate difficult for many employees.

Rada Yasin, an ALRB attorney of seven years, urged the board to "uphold the terms in bargaining unit two's agreement" and to use the executive order’s allowance for agency exceptions, arguing that the agency’s investigative work is routinely carried out remotely and does not require a full in-office presence.

Regional staff described logistical constraints that would complicate a full return to office. "In our Visalia office the infrastructure and parking constraints" are severe, said Margarita Padilla, a Region 2 investigator, noting 12 parking stalls (two reserved for state vehicles) and vacancies that would exhaust available spaces if everyone were required in-office every day. Padilla also said distributed staffing aids rapid deployment to outreach events across a wide geographic territory.

Union-affiliated staff and stewards warned the board that enforcing a strict four-day in-office policy could depress morale and staffing. Naomi Gregorio, an outreach worker and SEIU Local 1000 steward, said she understood the need for implementation plans but was concerned by a report the ALRB told SEIU it would not revert a mandate even if productivity, staffing or morale declined.

The board acknowledged the concerns but also described limits in the state’s meet-and-confer and bargaining processes. A board member sympathetic to staff said the legal and procedural framework for state collective bargaining differs from private-sector negotiations and can constrain rapid resolution.

Chair Hassid thanked staff for speaking and said the board values the input, noting that the ALRB’s unique, statewide, rural work pattern would inform how the agency implements any executive order requirements. The meeting recessed to closed session and later adjourned; the board did not take a formal public vote on telework at the meeting.

The staff speakers and board comments make clear that any change to telework policy will play out through the agency’s implementation process and ongoing meet-and-confer negotiations with unions.