A Democratic lawmaker is challenging Gov. Kevin Stitt’s return-to-work order for state employees, claiming the governor overstepped his authority into policies that should be decided by the legislative branch.
Rep. Andy Fugate, of Del City, filed the lawsuit on Friday in Oklahoma County district court. He’s asking for a temporary injunction against Stitt’s executive order issued on Dec. 18.
Fugate said state employees work for the people, not the governor, and the order has caused chaos for state employees. He said work-from-home flexibility has provided significant benefits for state employees, including more time with family, reduced expenses and an improved work-life balance.
“Today's workers are knowledge workers, not factory workers, and we measure workers by their productivity, not by their presence,” Fugate said. “Ultimately, this lawsuit is not about whether it's more productive to have butts in seats. It's about the office of the governor overstepping its authority.”
Stitt’s executive order called for all state employees to return to the office, with limited exceptions, by Feb. 1. Agencies that eliminated office space in the last few years and would have problems accommodating a full return to office could get an exception from the policy. Agency executives can also approve teleworking for employees with non-standard work hours.
Attorney Richard Labarthe, who is working on Fugate’s case on a pro bono basis, said Stitt’s original work-from-home policy came during the emergency powers granted to him during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said if the Legislature wanted to debate and pass wholesale changes to state employment terms, they are free to do so.
“We do not have laws made by executive or gubernatorial fiat,” Labarthe said. “That is not provided for in our governing document, the state constitution. So this is very much something that's outside Gov. Stitt’s purview.”
In his state of the state address, Stitt touted his approach to cutting government spending and his return-to-work policy.
“For years, I’ve instructed my cabinet secretaries and agency directors to shrink employee count and cut unnecessary contracts,” Stitt said in the Feb. 3 speech. “I am committed to having fewer state employees at the end of my term than when I took office in 2019. I also mandated an end to work from home policies for state employees to better serve the people of our state.”
In a written statement, Stitt said Fugate’s lawsuit was typical big government, Democrat behavior.
“State employees work for the taxpayer,” Stitt said in the prepared statement. “The data is clear, employees are more productive and accountable when they are working in the office. For the good of the taxpayer, work from home is over."
Some lawmakers, including Republicans, have expressed reservations about Stitt’s return-to-work policy. In a budget subcommittee hearing last month, Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, wondered if it could contribute to a loss of talent to the private sector, especially among younger state employees. Pugh worried that agencies would have to come back to the Legislature to request more money for higher salaries since work-from-home wasn’t an option or benefit anymore for state employees.
“I can tell you younger generations are actually looking for things like remote work and virtual work and flexible time instead of pay,” Pugh said in a Jan. 15 hearing for the Commissioners of the Land Office. “Now I think any employee will always ask for more money, but I think quality of life decisions, how they're able to raise a family, how they're able to not have to go ask their boss for an hour off so they can go to the doctor. I think those things are very important to a modern workforce.”
The state’s largest agency, the Department of Human Services, has more than 6,300 employees. Just 9%, or about 600 employees, were working fully on-site, the agency disclosed in budget documents in January. The rest were split almost evenly between fully remote or hybrid work arrangements.
The Office of Management and Enterprise Services is collecting responses from agencies about their progress or exceptions requested under the executive order. A report is supposed to be issued by the end of March. Oklahoma Watch has a pending open records request, filed Feb. 4, for agency responses so far.
Lawmakers have sued Stitt several times since he became governor over separation of power issues. The lawsuits largely dealt with disputes over how much authority the governor had to sign or change compacts with various tribal governments. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled for the Legislature in separate lawsuits brought in 2020, 2021 and 2024.
But the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 in January that the governor had the right to hire his own counsel in disputes with tribal governments, rejecting an argument from Attorney General Gentner Drummond that the AG had the sole authority to litigate those matters on behalf of the state.
