ACSS’ efforts to combat the Administration’s RTO mandate and withholding of salary increases

At the ACSS Board of Directors meeting held on May 17, 2025, ACSS discussed the Governor’s plans to withhold expected July 1, 2025 state employee salary increases, as announced in the Governor’s May Revise of the State Budget released on May 14, 2025. In reaction to this, ACSS is lobbying the Legislature to reject this proposal and has also begun a formal meet and confer process with CalHR to mitigate the proposed pause on excluded employee salary increases.

This week ACSS’ legislative advocates opposed the May Revise plan to withhold salary increases before the Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittees.

The Governor’s May Revision proposal removes the funding for the scheduled July 1, 2025, pay increases for excluded employees that were included in the January 2025 proposed budget. The Governor is also seeking legislative authorization to impose reductions to employee compensation if CalHR does not reach agreements to achieve savings through collective bargaining.

ACSS’ proposes solutions to mitigate effects, pushes back on RTO

ACSS met with CalHR on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, to discuss the excluded employee pay plan for 2025 -2026. In this meeting, ACSS communicated our opposition to the withholding of the expected salary increases and increased return to office.

CalHR encouraged ACSS to make formal proposals on behalf of excluded employees so they could be considered by the Administration, recognizing ACSS members’ right to be heard and to shape the pay plan.

The proposals would prevent take home pay from decreasing with expected increased employee contributions for health care in 2026 and would pause the return to office requirement.

These proposals include:

1. Suspension of All Excluded Employee Contributions Prefunding Post-Retirement Health Benefits
   1. ACSS PROPOSES: excluded employees shall not make employee contributions to prefund retiree health care effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026
   2. WHY THIS BENEFITS EXCLUDED EMPLOYEES: This suspension will mitigate the pause on general salary increases, since all employees enrolled in health plans are expected to see increased deductions related to increased health premiums in 2026.
       
2. Pause on Return to Office Mandates Driven by Executive Order N-22-25
   1. ACSS PROPOSES: A pause to the Return to Office mandate for a minimum of four days in the office
   2. WHY THIS BENEFITS EXCLUDED EMPLOYEES: ACSS believes state employees returning to offices a minimum of four days per week will:
      1. Increase costs to the state employer
      2. Increase commute costs
      3. Increase parking costs
      4. Will not increase their program’s productivity
          
3. Continue with Evaluation and Implementation of ACSS Salary Proposals to Eliminate Salary Compaction for Excluded Employees
   1. ACSS PROPOSES: CalHR continue to evaluate and eliminate salary compaction for excluded employees.
   2. WHY THIS BENEFITS EXCLUDED EMPLOYEES: CalHR has been responsive in eliminating instances of salary compaction and preventing new ones, but many supervisory and managerial classifications need salary adjustments.

As ACSS’ advocacy efforts continue, we will keep you apprised of the activities and outcome.

Also, please take note of a new "ACSS In the News" section of the website - The Sacramento Bee recently published an article (May 20, 2025), "With threat of salary freezes, what's on the bargaining table for state workers?" In this article, ACSS is mentioned and provides direct quotation on ACSS' reactions to the issue.