Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus directives have largely left out state workers. ‘It’s frustrating.’

The Bay Area is on lockdown. The president wants people to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people.

Yet thousands of California state workers are still leaving their homes to go to work in well-populated office buildings, awaiting further guidance from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In response to a reporter’s question at a Sunday news conference, where he told seniors over 65 to stay indoors and directed bars to close, the Democratic governor said he’d have more to say about state workers on Tuesday. He said his administration is still working to determine which employees are “essential” and which are “non-essential” across a state workforce of 230,000 people.

Some workers are scared, and frustrated that the governor’s escalating actions to address coronavirus seem to have left them out.

“I understand that his focus has primarily been on the citizens, but they have to understand that we’re citizens as well,” said Paulina Vasquez, a district sales representative for the California Lottery who is a union steward. “And if we’re nonessential, there’s no reason for us to be out there risking our health and the health of the citizens. I feel like they’re always a day late and a dollar short on these things.”

Vasquez’s job is to drive around to gas stations, grocery stores and liquor stores picking up and dropping off lottery tickets. She said it should be an easy call to designate the work non-essential, yet she had to work through last week.

On Thursday, she came down with a fever and a dry cough. Now her three-year old daughter is sick and she’s keeping her 10-year-old daughter, who has asthma, on a separate floor of their home in Modesto to try to protect her.

Vasquez, 42, hasn’t been able to get a test yet for COVID-19 but fears that if she has the disease, she might have exposed a lot of people for no good reason while working.

“It’s frustrating,” she said. “It’s disappointing.”

Her concerns reflect many of the opinions state workers have shared on social media in response to The Sacramento Bee’s reporting on Newsom’s actions.

“We take the health and safety of state workers very seriously,” Andrew LaMar, spokesman for the California Department of Human Resources, said in an email. “That’s why the Newsom administration is working hard to give state workers flexibility and options to work from home, if needed. We will continue to explore ways to uphold our commitment to serve the public while keeping our employees safe.”

On Monday, CalPERS closed its Sacramento offices and canceled its monthly board meeting after an employee was sent home after showing symptoms. The employee tested negative, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Caltrans closed a district office in Oakland after an employee there tested positive. Both departments planned to reopen the offices after cleaning them.

Newsom has said he is trying to strike a balance that protects public safety while keeping society “productive,” and is earning praise from health officials for his efforts. He has said he’s trying to avoid “other unintended consequences” as he recommends how Californians should behave.

Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron described Newsom’s approach as “measured” and said so far he’s been working well with her office and responding to concerns from Republicans in the Legislature.

“He’s doing what needs to be done at this point,” said Waldron, R-Escondido. “We’ll have to assess as we go along whether it’s effective or not.”

CalHR has said administrative time off is available for workers who are quarantined under orders from public officials. State government has expanded workers’ use of sick leave and other types of leave and has encouraged departments to consider telework agreements.

“You’ve already seen a large number of our state employees telecommuting,” Newsom said Sunday.

Yet departments have interpreted that guidance differently, according to workers and emailed announcements from their bosses.

Leaders at the Franchise Tax Board, which is in the midst of tax season, have removed some limitations on existing telework agreements through the end of March and directed managers to consider new requests, with limits.

“Teleworking may be considered for individuals who do not currently telework, on a case by case basis, as long as the work lends itself to teleworking and the allowance of telework would not cause major impacts to either workload or customer service levels,” Selvi Stanislaus, the department’s director, wrote in a Friday email to employees. “In other words, telework may not be able to be offered to all who desire it.”

Workers who certify they are 65 or older should work remotely if they can, Stanislaus said in a follow-up email. If they can’t, they should use all available leave, including sick days and time off, before they will be considered for administrative time off, she said.

About 11 percent of California’s state workforce is over 59, according to CalHR’s most recent survey, from 2018.

The Department of Industrial Relations directed workers on Sunday to submit detailed requests for telework, telling them that while the department doesn’t have enough laptops to accommodate everyone, workers may be able to use their own computers.

While the decisions Newsom’s administration has to make might be easy for some job classifications, other jobs are more complex.

Public safety workers and those who manage basic resources like water supplies, transportation networks health care and information technology likely will be designated essential. Workers in some offices, such as those dealing with taxes and revenue, are less certain about what to expect. Jobs that require access to sensitive case files and taxpayer information don’t necessarily lend themselves to telecommuting.

Some of the offices are tasked with providing the very services many citizens will depend on most as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic ripple outward.

The Employment Development Department, with about 7,700 employees, is in charge of unemployment and disability benefits that people who lose jobs will depend on to process claims quickly.

The department was tested amid the Great Recession and found wanting, but has since taken steps aimed at modernizing its functions.

“EDD is going to play a critical role in this as companies lay off workers. The whole unemployment system and that support system is going to be critical to provide support, especially to lower wage workers, as this winds back up,” said Michael Shires, an associate professor of public policy at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy.

Also waiting for direction are workers with the Department of Motor Vehicles, regulators and inspectors with the Department of Consumer Affairs and employees of the Department of Social Services, among others.

Other groups are also waiting on specific guidance from the Governor’s Office, as Newsom’s administration manages a response to a sprawling state with 40 million residents. Newsom said Sunday he expected to announce specific guidance soon for private daycare and other child care facilities.

Sen. Richard Pan, one of the medical doctors serving in the Legislature, said he thinks Newsom’s decision to first make guidance about social distancing and bar closures voluntary will prompt more people to comply than a mandate would.

“A lot of this is about leadership and bringing everyone along. He can make announcements and pronouncements, but if people aren’t coming along with him, then he becomes less effective,” said Pan, D-Sacramento. “I think it will prompt more compliance, because people will take ownership themselves.”

This story was updated at 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday, March 17 to reflect that a CalPERS employee had tested negative for conavirus.

This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus directives have largely left out state workers. ‘It’s frustrating.’."