Jonathan Kantrowitz

State public service workers will be empowered to save taxpayer dollars through reduced fuel costs, increased productivity, and conserve resources under bill signed by Governor Rell

A bill that implements long-overdue improvements to telecommuting policies for Connecticut State employees that was passed by the General Assembly in the final weeks of the 2010 legislative session is now law. Governor M. Jodi Rell signed “An Act Concerning Telecommuting Options for State Employees” after years of advocacy by members of CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 to strengthen a program that has the potential to save taxpayer money, relieve traffic congestion, and preserve natural resources.

“This is a win for State workers, the people we serve, and our environment,” said Donna Seresin, a sanitary engineer in the Department of Environmental Protection. “Telecommuting helps increase productivity, saves fuel costs, and cuts down on emissions. Allowing me to drive directly to inspections in Fairfield County and skip the trip back and forth to Hartford will put me in the ‘environmental fast lane,’” said Seresin, a member of CSEA/SEIU Local 2001.

Connecticut has lagged behind other states and the federal government in adopting effective telecommuting policies despite passage of a law in 1996 that created a preliminary program for its workforce. The new law will allow individual State agency heads to work cooperatively with Union members in developing and implementing options that are beneficial to the environment, reduce traffic congestion, and improve employee efficiency.

“We’re looking forward to making the policy changes needed to put telecommuting to work,” said Paige Farnham, an education consultant with the State Department of Education. “To be successful, labor and management have to work as partners in finding ways to be more efficient. In this tough economy, that’s what taxpayers expect of all of us,” said Farnham, the President of the Council in CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 that represents education professionals serving in several State agencies.

Members of the Union first called on legislators and the governor to take action in 2008, at a time when less than one percent of State employees were telecommuting, as compared to nine percent in Connecticut’s private sector. Engineering, scientific, and technical professionals at the DEP took the lead and began speaking out after their collaborative efforts with agency management to put the existing policy to work became stuck in a bureaucratic bottleneck.

CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 represents 25,000 active and retired public sector workers across Connecticut.

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