April 4, 2023 3:00 a.m.

On Monday, the Oregon Department of Administrative Services announced its plan to end reimbursement standards for remote work that was established during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The reinstated policy, which comes at the direction of Governor Tina Kotek, will end the pandemic era practice of reimbursing employees who work remotely, including those who work out-of-state to travel to their offices in Oregon.

A release from the Governors Office said under the revised policy, which returns Oregon’s remote work guidelines pre-pandemic, state employees will continue to be allowed to work remotely as approved by their agencies. However, remote employees will no longer be reimbursed for commuting to the office. This policy will go into effect September 1st, which will enable DAS to properly prepare and provide notice to employees about changes to the remote policy around reimbursement.

DAS Interim Director Berri Leslie said, “We look forward to implementing this change and to refine our policies to meet the needs of our state employees”.