Utah's 'surge remote work' program, designed for state employees to work from home on poor air quality days, will be repealed effective May 7. A bill, HB404, primarily focused on updating pay-for-performance management, included a hidden repeal of the remote work initiative after state officials concluded it had no measurable impact on traffic or air quality. Although there was some dissent in the Senate, the repeal passed without opposition in the House and was signed into law by Governor Spencer Cox. Employees are facing this end right before the typically smog-prone summer months.
Though the surge remote work program was intended to reduce air pollution on poor air quality days, traffic data revealed it did not significantly affect congestion or emissions.
State officials justified the program's elimination by pointing to data from the Utah Department of Transportation, indicating no noticeable change in traffic patterns linked to remote work on bad air days.
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