Gavin Newsom did something remarkable last year: He told California state workers to come back to work.

His executive order directed agencies and departments under his administration to make at least four days a week in the office the default. Newsom said in-person work improves collaboration, innovation and accountability.

On this issue, he was right.

Remote work has its place. Some jobs can be done effectively from home, and taxpayers can save on office space. But working from home should not become an entitlement or the default for a government workforce.

Anica Walls, president of SEIU Local 1000, center, raises her fist during a rally protesting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office policy at the Capitol in Sacramento, California, on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. Demonstrators gathered for a group photo as purple smoke billowed behind them in a show of solidarity. Renee C. Byer/ZUMA / SplashNews.com

My good friend David Bahnsen, author of Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life, puts the mentorship problem bluntly: “Young talent yearns to observe, interact, and collaborate, and Gen Z, far more so than Gen Y, seeks mentorship. In-office work exponentially improves this prospect!”

Zoom is useful. It is not a substitute for an organization.

And if anybody should decide how often executive-branch employees show up for work, surely it is the chief executive.

Enter Assembly Bill 1729.

Authored by Democratic Assemblyman Alex Lee and coauthored by Republican Assemblyman Josh Hoover, the bill throws a statutory obstacle in Newsom’s way. 

Existing law already requires agencies to maintain telework plans where teleworking is “both practical and beneficial.” 

Thousands of workers and activists rally and march towards downtown Los Angeles in recognition of May Day on Saturday, May 2, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. Organizers of the event also called on people to take part in an economic boycott. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

AB 1729 adds another requirement: When operational needs require employees to report to a workplace, agencies must provide a detailed written justification.

Newsom’s policy starts with office work as the default. 

AB 1729 pushes the other way. 

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If managers want employees physically present, government must explain why.

That is bad policy and lousy management.

The Legislature can set broad employment law. But where employees report for work is a basic management decision. The governor runs the executive branch, and voters can hold him responsible when state government performs poorly.

Samantha Toedter, left, and Kiley Janee Braud, right, join state workers protesting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office policy during a rally organized by SEIU Local 1000 at the Capitol on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Sacramento, Ca. Renee C. Byer/ZUMA / SplashNews.com

The person held accountable should have the authority to manage.

SEIU Local 1000, of course, loves AB 1729.

The union has fought Newsom’s return-to-office mandate and pushed expanded telework.

Some of the complaints would make Californians who never stopped commuting roll their eyes. 

On SEIU’s own website, state workers have complained about traffic, gas prices, wear and tear on their cars, parking costs and childcare as reasons to keep working from home.

Those are real expenses. They are also expenses millions of Californians deal with every day simply to get to work.

California State Senator Roger Niello.

SEIU isn’t fighting for its members. It’s fighting to keep a pandemic-era privilege that most of its members’ neighbors never had in the first place.

California’s public-employee unions, with SEIU among the most powerful, spend hundreds of millions on politics, electing legislators, influencing ballot measures and maintaining the political machinery that protects their interests.

Everyone in Sacramento understands how this works. Public-employee unions help elect politicians who then vote for union priorities.

The harder question is why Republicans are helping them.

AB 1729 is an urgency bill. It takes effect immediately if enacted and requires two-thirds in both houses.

In the Assembly, it passed 67-7. Eleven Republicans voted yes, a majority of Assembly Republicans, even though Democrats had enough votes without them.

California State Assembly member Josh Hoover. PPIC

Read that again: A majority of Assembly Republicans voted for an SEIU priority.

Most remarkably, Hoover is a coauthor and was just elevated to Assembly minority floor leader.

Assembly Republicans who voted for this, in addition to Hoover, were Juan Alanis, Phillip Chen, Laurie Davies, Heath Flora, Jeff Gonzalez, Heather Hadwick, Tom Lackey, Joe Patterson, David Tangipa, and Greg Wallis.

Apparently not much floor leadership was needed here.

The Senate vote is just as revealing. AB 1729 passed 31-6. Democrats supplied exactly the 27 votes needed for an urgency bill. Four Republicans — Megan Dahle, Shannon Grove, Roger Niello and Suzette Valladares — joined them anyway.

Niello, whom Senate Republicans selected to become their leader after the November election, should understand this better than most. He spent 25 years helping run his family’s automobile dealerships.

Imagine Sacramento telling the Niello Auto Group that working from home should be the default, then requiring a written justification whenever management wants employees physically present at the dealership.

Niello would rightly call that an absurd intrusion into management.

So why is it good policy when the employer is the state of California?

Now AB 1729 heads to Newsom’s desk. He should veto it right away. Or he can explain to voters across America why state workers shouldn’t have to report to the office.

SEIU Local 1000 is doing what its members pay it to do.

California Republicans should explain why they are helping.

Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com.