Morale might be low at PUC, but digs get upgrade
With all the complaints about low morale and poor oversight at the California Public Utilities Commission, it's interesting to note that more than 750 staffers at the Golden Gate Avenue headquarters are getting new workstations - at a cost of about $18,000 apiece.
The cubicles themselves actually cost only $2.3 million.
They're also spending $3.7 million to rent office space a block away to house those workers temporarily displaced while the new cubicles are installed - one floor at a time to limit the disruptions.
Plus, they're spending $2.9 million more to rewire for cable, upgrade the bathrooms and add a pair of break rooms on all five floors - a job that is scheduled to take just over two years.
Throw in moving and other miscellaneous costs, and the estimated price tag for the cubicle upgrade is $14 million.
As for the benefits?
"The new workstations will have more storage space and they will be fully (wheelchair) compliant," says PUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper.
And, from what we hear, getting the unions to sign off on their new digs has been a piece of cake compared with things over at the federal Environmental Protection Agency's regional office.
The brass there, hoping to take advantage of the natural light, proposed everyone get low-wall cubicles with glass partitions - but the unions demanded more privacy.
The two sides went to legal mediation, but that didn't work - and eventually it took the intervention of a federal arbitrator to strike a deal.
Morale might be low at PUC, but digs get upgrade - SFGate
Union goonette is named prosper eh? :lol:
With all the complaints about low morale and poor oversight at the California Public Utilities Commission, it's interesting to note that more than 750 staffers at the Golden Gate Avenue headquarters are getting new workstations - at a cost of about $18,000 apiece.
The cubicles themselves actually cost only $2.3 million.
They're also spending $3.7 million to rent office space a block away to house those workers temporarily displaced while the new cubicles are installed - one floor at a time to limit the disruptions.
Plus, they're spending $2.9 million more to rewire for cable, upgrade the bathrooms and add a pair of break rooms on all five floors - a job that is scheduled to take just over two years.
Throw in moving and other miscellaneous costs, and the estimated price tag for the cubicle upgrade is $14 million.
As for the benefits?
"The new workstations will have more storage space and they will be fully (wheelchair) compliant," says PUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper.
And, from what we hear, getting the unions to sign off on their new digs has been a piece of cake compared with things over at the federal Environmental Protection Agency's regional office.
The brass there, hoping to take advantage of the natural light, proposed everyone get low-wall cubicles with glass partitions - but the unions demanded more privacy.
The two sides went to legal mediation, but that didn't work - and eventually it took the intervention of a federal arbitrator to strike a deal.
Morale might be low at PUC, but digs get upgrade - SFGate
Union goonette is named prosper eh? :lol: