(The Center Square) – There’s now an official push to get state workers back to their offices in Wisconsin.
State Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, introduced legislation to require state employees, and workers at the Universities of Wisconsin, to return to their offices by July.
“Nearly five years removed from the pandemic, a significant number of state employees continue to work remotely while productivity diminishes and office buildings sit mostly empty,” Neweski said in a statement. “It is time for state employees to return to in-person work so they can do the job that Wisconsin’s hardworking taxpayers pay them to do.”
A recent state audit showed that thousands of state and UW employees continued to work from home. In fact, in some state agencies, nearly all workspaces were left empty.
Nedweski said that includes more than 94% of desks at the Department of Public Instruction’s office.
“It is unconscionable to me that only about 5% of DPI’s employees are actually working in-person,” Nedweski added. “Wisconsin has thousands of dedicated and hardworking teachers who are in their classrooms five days a week to help provide our kids with the best education possible. It is only right that the agency that oversees those teachers is held to the same standard.”
Nedweski’s legislation requires state workers to “return to work in their physical offices by July 1, 2025.”
Anyone who is a state employee or UW employee who was able to work from home before COVID will continue to be able to work from home under Nedweski’s plan.
“This bill is about maximizing the efficiency that we get from our state agencies and our state-owned buildings. If a majority of state employees are not working in-person, we are unable to get full use out of those buildings while wasting taxpayer dollars to maintain mostly empty office space,” she said. “In his State of the State address, Governor Evers indicated that he wants state government to work smarter and faster. Let’s start by making sure that state employees are being held accountable for their productivity.”
Gov. Tony Evers has also said he’s not looking to force state workers back to the office.
He said before the new legislative session that he’s open to allow state employees to continue with remote work because it allows Wisconsin to find the best and brightest outside of Madison or Milwaukee.
“We went out of our way during the pandemic, and post-pandemic, to hire people in Rhinelander and all sorts of different places in the state, because we knew they can work from home or work from an office that’s remote from Madison,” Evers said in December.
Evers later threatened to veto the state budget if it includes a back-to-the-office requirement. He’s expected to do the same to a stand-alone piece of legislation.
