Minnesota state employees need to work in the office at least 50% of workdays, Gov. Walz says
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday changed the remote work policy for state employees, requiring that they return in-person to the office for at least half of their workdays starting this summer.
The change, Walz said, "balances the flexibility of telework with the workplace advantages of being in office."
"Call it old school or whatever, but it is certainly the practice of across the public and in private sector, the energy that comes with being back in the office — the things that we gain together," the governor told reporters this week.
There are 40,000 government employees and Walz said 60% of them are already back in-person or have continued to be since the pandemic upended workplaces and daily life five years ago.
But unions representing tens of thousands of state employees are condemning the decision, which they said was made without their input.
The Minnesota Association of Professional Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5 said during a news conference Thursday that they learned of the change when the rest of the public did when the governor's office released a statement earlier this week.
"This is going to have devastating impacts on our members," said Megan Dayton, president of MAPE. "We had some people reaching out yesterday after they got the order to look for daycare for their kids. It's a six-to-nine-month wait list to get their kids in daycare. We heard from other people that they went down to one car during the pandemic because both adults in the house were working from home."
She added: "We will settle for nothing less than a full rescinding of this executive order."
Walz told reporters Wednesday that the trend nationwide is workers returning to the office and that the timing was right for state government employees, too. Businesses in downtown St. Paul who are eager to see the foot traffic through their doors welcomed the announcement.
"I understand the frustration on this. If there's some folks that have been in this, it works. But again, I'm saying we're going to work with you on it. It's a 50% return, which is, again, pretty much where folks are at," Walz said in response to the unions' criticism. "I'll continue to make sure that the state of Minnesota is an employer of choice, a great place where people want to work, and I want to keep them — I want to do everything possible. And I'll advocate this spring for operating adjustments in my budget that allows us to keep this talented workforce."
There is an exemption for workers who live 75 miles or more away from their workplace, which the governor's office said will allow the state to continue to attract workers from every part of Minnesota.
The policy requires that workers come in-person for "50% of their scheduled workdays" but is not prescriptive about how that can be structured. Walz said it will be up to state agencies for enforcement and insists it's not a blanket for everybody and there will be individual case-by-case exceptions, too.
Dayton said that's one of the many questions to which she and others haven't received an answer.
She added the unions are contemplating a strike if there isn't a reversal, but there is a process in place for that to actually happen, and it couldn't even begin in earnest until the current contract with the state expires on June 30.
