On July 28, 2025, United Public Employees (UPE) met and conferred with Merced County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) about a policy update for the Telework Personal Device Use Notification and Agreement Form. This policy applies to employees who choose to use their personal computers for telework instead of County-issued equipment.
The policy says that if you use your own device, you must keep active anti-virus protection, may need to provide proof of that protection, and acknowledge that the County has the right to review County-related work content stored or sent from your device. The County says it will limit its review to work-related material only, but personal information may be inadvertently seen if mixed with County data. The County will not provide technical support for personal devices, but employees may still request technical support for the software on the device.
During the July 28th meeting, UPE raised questions and concerns about privacy, fairness, and the burden placed on employees. From the start, UPE made it clear that it is unacceptable for the County to unilaterally take away an employee’s personal device for an investigation. In response to these concerns, the County restructured its position and clarified that it will not confiscate personal devices. Instead, if work-related information is needed, the employee will be asked to send the requested files or, in some cases, limited access may occur by Country remotely through VPN. The County confirmed that VPN access only allows the retrieval of specific work documents and does not give them complete visibility into an employee’s device.
The department plans to implement this policy as soon as possible. UPE will continue to monitor how it is applied. Please feel free to contact UPE if you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy.
UPE WOULD LIKE TO THANK UPE MERCED COUNTY UNIT 3 GOVERNING BOARD MEMBERS CARMELITA RODRIGUEZ FOR THEIR ADVOCACY AND PARTICIPATION.
